Latest news with #GirlsWhoCode
Mint
27-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Mint
Meghan Markle opens up about pregnancy weight, stilettos, and motherhood in podcast season finale
Meghan Markle has opened up about her pregnancies with Archie and Lilibet in the heartfelt finale of her podcast, Confessions of a Female Founder. The Duchess of Sussex spoke honestly about the changes she went through, both physically and emotionally, during those times. In the final episode of her podcast - Confessions of a Female Founder, Duchess of Sussex Meghan Markle shared that she gained 65 pounds during both pregnancies. Despite this, she still wore five-inch heels while attending royal engagements. 'A friend just said to me the other day, they were like, 'I just saw this picture I'd forgotten about when you were so pregnant with Archie,'' she recalled. 'I always wear my five-inch, pointy-toed stilettos.' She laughed as she described how her friend reacted to the photo. ''You have the most enormous bump and your tiny little ankles are bracing themselves in these high heels,'' Meghan said. 'All my weight was in the front. So you're just going, how on Earth am I not just tipping, you know, face planting?' She added, 'I was clinging very closely to my husband, like, 'Please don't let me fall.'' During her pregnancy with Archie in 2019, Meghan carried out many public duties as a senior royal. With Lilibet in 2021, she was living in California and kept things more private. Tuesday's (May 27) episode marked the end of her podcast's first season, which launched on April 8. Throughout the season, Meghan welcomed a group of inspiring female founders, including some of her close friends. Some of the people she invited were Whitney Wolfe Herd of Bumble, Reshma Saujani of Girls Who Code and Moms First, Kadi Lee of Highbrow Hippie, Jamie Kern Lima of IT Cosmetics and The Jamie Kern Lima Show, Hannah Mendoza of Clevr Blends, Heather Hasson of FIGS and Cassandra Morales Thurswell of Kitsch. The podcast runs alongside the launch of Meghan's new lifestyle brand, As ever, which blends wellness, creativity, and entrepreneurship.
Forbes
02-05-2025
- Business
- Forbes
This Founder Wants To Help Alzheimer's Patients Restore Memory. Plus: Stop Spinning Your Wheels
This is this week's ForbesWomen newsletter, which every Thursday brings news about the world's top female entrepreneurs, leaders and investors straight to your inbox. Click here to get on the newsletter list! When was the last time you really embraced imperfection? This newsletter talks pretty regularly about how perfectionism can be bad for our wellbeing and even our workplace culture, but it can feel far easier to read and write about the power of imperfection and failure than it can be to actually live it. I was reminded of this during an event for Ms. President US Wednesday night. The organization is one that prepares young girls (fourth through eighth grade) for civic leadership, and the New York City Ms. President chapter leader and founder, high school junior Sofia Sahai, had invited me to interview entrepreneur Reshma Saujani about her career and the ways she's taken action even after significant career setbacks. In recounting the political losses that preceded her founding of Girls Who Code, Moms First, and PaidLeave AI, Saujani talked about how publicly losing two Congressional races liberated her to fight even harder for women's equality without fear of messing up or looking stupid. For Sahai—and I think for a lot of us, which is why I'm writing about it here—it's an important reminder that a setback isn't necessarily the end of a story. In many cases, it's the beginning. 'I think a lot of times, with girls, once a girl faces rejection—I'm speaking from personal experience—it's really hard to keep going, because you feel like one shutdown can be the end of the world,' Sahai told afterwards. 'But really, a no is just opening so many doors to other yeses.' Cheers to that! Maggie P.S.: Last week, we reported on President Trump's comment that a $5,000 'baby bonus' to encourage more people to have children could be a 'good idea.' Today for a Know Your Value segment on 'Morning Joe,' Mika Brzezinski, Huma Abedin and I analyzed whether such a policy is actually smart—and I also gave an update about 50 Over 50 nominations. Tune in here to see our discussion! Stella Sarraf founded drug discovery company Spinogenix in 2016 with a goal of finding a better way to treat neurodegenerative disorders—particularly Alzheimer's Disease. Her approach looks at the brain's synapses, which are the structures that allow our neurons to, effectively, talk to each other. 'We have a small molecule drug in clinical development working at restoring those synapses, those connections that can stop working,' Sarraf told ForbesWomen editor Maggie McGrath in a recent interview. 'When you restore those connections, you can regain function. So our hope is that we can restore memory.' Pakistani Nobel Peace Prize laureate Malala Yousafzai. (Photo by BENJAMIN CREMEL/AFP via Getty ... More Images) Since 2013, the Malala Fund has distributed $65 million through more than 400 grants across 27 countries. Now, as gender equality and girls' rights backslide around the world, the fund has announced that it is accelerating its impact and committing to distribute another $50 million over the next five years. For the third year in a row, Forbes scoured the country to determine the richest person in every state across the country. In Wisconsin, ABC Supply cofounder Diane Hendricks (net worth: $21.9 billion) is one of 10 women who are the richest residents of their respective states, up from nine last year. Last year, women's health startup Midi Health became one of the fastest-growing companies in its space by reaching some $100 million in funding, earning a spot on Forbes' Next Billion Dollar Startup list. ForbesWomen editor Maggie McGrath recently caught up with Midi cofounder and CEO, Joanna Strober, to hear about why she's hiring 'an army of nurse practitioners' and how she plans to increase Midi's reach. We're not monkeying around with this one: Two new studies, one focused on bonobos, the other on professional women, underscore that female alliances can be game-changers. In the wild, researchers found that female bonobos form coalitions to suppress male aggression and maintain social power. Women in the workplace are doing something remarkably similar: By building supportive networks, they're pushing back against gender discrimination. The lesson from both studies is that when females back each other, they gain power. 1. Move beyond a period of stagnation. Working nonstop but feeling like you're going nowhere? In order to stop spinning your wheels, it might be time to reevaluate your priorities—and put deeper, more creative work on your to-do list. 2. Figure out when you're being gaslit. Gaslighting is a form of emotional and psychological manipulation, and it can occur in personal, professional, political, and medical situations. Not sure whether you're being gaslit by someone? Here are seven warning signs to consider. 3. Understand your employees' empathy expectations. A recent Deloitte study finds that Gen Z workers consider empathy one of the top two most important qualities in a boss. But what does this mean practically? Here's everything you need to know. In the latest online discourse about men and animals, social media users this week began debating which side would 'win' in a fight between 100 men and one gorilla. The last time a similar debate arose, women debated whether it's safer to encounter a man in the wild or a… A. Snake B. Lion C. Bear D. Tarantula Check your answer.
USA Today
27-04-2025
- Entertainment
- USA Today
Duchess Meghan revisits need to 'detach' during 2020 miscarriage on new podcast
Duchess Meghan revisits need to 'detach' during 2020 miscarriage on new podcast Show Caption Hide Caption Prince Harry visits Ukraine to meet wounded warriors Prince Harry makes surprise visit to Ukraine, where he met victims of war in Ukraine as a part of his work with wounded veterans. Duchess Meghan is revisiting the miscarriage she suffered in the summer of 2020. The Duchess of Sussex addressed her heartbreaking experience on the Tuesday episode of her "Confessions of a Female Founder" podcast with Girls Who Code founder Reshma Saujani. The pair, who met under "different circumstances" in 2018 when Meghan was pregnant with Prince Archie while living as a working royal in the United Kingdom, discussed their individual experiences with miscarriages during the episode. "I'll bring this up if you're comfortable talking about it, because I know you've spoken publicly about, as you're doing Girls Who Code, all the interpersonal things that are happening for you at that time and the miscarriages that you've experienced," Meghan said. Duchess Meghan shares she had a miscarriage in July, writes about loss, need for healing Meghan shares 5-year-old son Archie and daughter Princess Lilibet, 3, with her husband Prince Harry. "I've spoken about the miscarriage that we experienced," she added. "I think in some parallel way, when you have to learn to detach from the thing that you have so much promise and hope for and to be able to be okay at a certain point to let something go that you plan to love for a long time." Saujani said, "I don't think anyone's seen it that way, like, said it that way for me," telling Meghan that she had a "scary habit" of showing up to "perform" socially after being told by doctors that she had miscarried. During her conversation with Meghan, the CEO of Moms First also divulged that after the string of miscarriages, which she contributed to "autoimmune issues," she handed Girls Who Code duties over to her team. "You have this beautiful line that I quote all the time, 'The most important title I have is mom.' And I so desperately wanted that title," Saujani told Meghan. Duchess Meghan revealed her own miscarriage in November 2020 In a November 2020 essay in The New York Times opinion section, Meghan intimately revealed that she had suffered a miscarriage in July of that year. "It was a July morning that began as ordinarily as any other day: Make breakfast. Feed the dogs. Take vitamins. Find that missing sock. Pick up the rogue crayon that rolled under the table. Throw my hair in a ponytail before getting my son from his crib," Meghan wrote. "After changing his diaper, I felt a sharp cramp. I dropped to the floor with him in my arms, humming a lullaby to keep us both calm, the cheerful tune a stark contrast to my sense that something was not right." She continued, "In being invited to share our pain, together we take the first steps toward healing."
Fox News
26-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Fox News
Code Breaker: 'Girls Who Code' founder Reshma Saujani's Tech Revolution
'If at first you don't succeed, try, try again' is far easier said than done, yet if anyone's story exemplifies why we shouldn't let failure stand in our way, it's Girls Who Code founder Reshma Saujani. From applying to Yale Law School three times before being accepted, to becoming the first Indian American woman to run for Congress, Reshma refused to let 'no' stop her from succeeding. Saujani joins Liz to discuss how this tenacity ultimately led her to create the nonprofit Girls Who Code, which has now taught over 700,000 girls and women to code across the country. She shares how being the daughter of immigrants drove her to want to make an impact in America, the country responsible for saving her parents' lives after they were expelled from Uganda. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit
Daily Mail
23-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
EXCLUSIVE Meghan 'has tried to land A-list stars as big as Beyoncé and Taylor Swift' for her new podcast but 'no one's picking up the phone'
Meghan Markle has tried to land an A-lister like Beyonce and Taylor Swift for her female empowerment podcast, which is already in crisis after just three episodes, it was claimed today. 'No one's picking up the phone', one source close to the production has claimed, adding: 'The show is not landing'. 'There's no Taylor Swift. No Beyoncé. Not even a Hailey Bieber. And when you're pitching female empowerment, that's a problem. It speaks volumes for her pulling power. She's not happy about her lack of appeal', they added. Meghan interviewed Bumble founder Whitney Wolfe Herd on the debut episode of the Duchess of Sussex 's new Lemonada podcast, Confessions of a Female Founder. Her second instalment was with Reshma Saujani, founder of Girls Who Code, and today's episode was with her friend, hair colourist Kadi Lee, whose company the former Suits star has also invested in. A source close to the making of the show has claimed that Ms Markle and her team 'dialled all the big names' to join her for 'honest conversations with women who've built from the ground up, faced challenges and kept going.' But these calls have been quietly ignored, Radar has said. So instead of household names or cultural icons, Meghan is now expected to speak to more friends, influencers and startup entrepreneurs, as she tries to get her own As Ever brand off the ground. One source said that fans can probably forget 'red-carpet royalty' on Confessions of a Female Founder. 'This is a show crying out for relevance, and it's just not landing', the source said. Confessions of a Female Founder is Meghan's follow-up to Archetypes, which failed to land and led to Spotify not renewing the Sussexes' $25million contract in 2023. Spotify's head of podcast innovation and monetisation then called Prince Harry and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, 'grifters' in the aftermath. But she has returned to podcasting, to further mixed reviews. In episode one of Confessions of a Female Founder, Meghan revealed she had a 'huge medical scare' after giving birth and posted a series of unseen throwback photos on Instagram of her childhood. She also had a thinly-veiled dig at the royal family and Britain as she joked about wanting to be in a 'cocoon' after she paraded Archie after his birth with her husband Harry. 'It appears to be in crisis. You can expect much more of the same if Meghan can't convince any A-listers to come on her pod', one insider told MailOnline. Today the Duchess of Sussex used her new podcast to admit the original name for lifestyle brand As Ever became a 'word salad'. Meghan Markle originally introduced her latest business venture selling products such as raspberry spread as American Riviera Orchard in March last year. But she faced trademarking setbacks and switched the name to As Ever in February, just weeks before the launch - with Netflix now a new partner in the business. The Duchess spoke about the name in the third episode of her podcast Confessions Of A Female Founder, in which she interviewed her friend, hair colourist Kadi Lee. She said: 'I had secured As Ever as a name in 2022, and then as everything started to evolve last year, and bringing in a partner the size that it was, and it was just so interesting. 'Because you remember, I said, 'I like American Riviera as an umbrella,' and then be able to have verticals beneath it. And maybe have the 'Orchard' really small. But when that's not feasible… suddenly it became this word salad. I didn't love that so much.' 'I was like, 'OK, well let's go back to the thing that I've always loved. Let's use the name that I protected for a reason that had been sort of under wraps'. 'And then we were able to focus in the quiet and put our heads down and build on something that no one was sniffing around to even see about. 'It was just really, really helpful to have that quiet period which you would know after spending so many years working on something, building it and the pivots that you had to take with it.' Meghan's guest Lee runs the Highbrow Hippie salon in the Los Angeles area of Venice, with her clients including Julia Roberts, Brad Pitt and Sigourney Weaver. The Duchess revealed last November that she had invested in the company, telling InStyle at the time that she was 'so proud to invest in her as a friend and as a female founder'. Meghan also attended a launch event for the brand in Venice and posed for photos with Lee and celebrity hairstylist Serge Normant, who styled her hair for her wedding to Prince Harry in Windsor in 2018. And the Duchess said of Lee in the podcast: 'Look at you now, I mean the name Highbrow Hippie is no longer just a blog and a hair salon, it's a product line too. 'You have a hair supplement and hair serum that you just launched last year, and it's already been named best hair serum by Oprah Daily.' The Duchess described Lee in the podcast as a 'dear friend' and said people 'can't get enough' of Lee's products. Lee also said they first met in 2020, which was the year Meghan stepped down as a senior royal with Harry and moved her family to California. Meghan and Lee met through Normant, and Lee styled Meghan's hair last year for the Los Angeles children's hospital gala in October, the ESPN Espy Awards in July and the Invictus Games One Year to Go event in February. Lee – who previously worked at the Aveda Institute in New York - and her friend Myka Harris founded their hair salon in 2019 following the success of a shared blog. Their brand also promotes 'conscious living' and sells smokeless incense, California olive oil, Mason Pearson hairbrushes and magnesium food supplements. In 2020, the pair attended a Black Lives Matter march and highlighted how they were the only black-owned business on their street. In May 2023, the salon revealed that Meghan had booked in for a hair colouring session with Lee ahead of the Women of Vision awards in New York. Their conversation is the latest instalment from Meghan's new eight-part podcast with Lemonada Media, which promised 'girl talk' and advice on how to create 'billion-dollar businesses'. It follows the Duchess's Netflix lifestyle series With Love, Meghan coming out last month and the launch As Ever, which is selling flower sprinkles and herbal tea. The latest episode of Meghan's podcast comes after she spoke about 'juggling it all' and nursing a poorly Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet at home in episode two last week. Meghan revealed how, at the time of recording, one of her children had RSV (respiratory syncytial virus) – a common cause of coughs and colds – and the other influenza A – a form of flu. The Duchess, talking about the challenge of being a working mother, said: 'With that comes the woman who is juggling it all and doing it all from home, being confident enough to tell the truth about what's going on, because you can't give grace to someone in the same way if you just have no sense of it.' Speaking to Reshma Saujani, founder of the not-for-profit Girls Who Code, she also touched on her experience of miscarriage and having to 'let something go that you plan to love for a long time'. Meghan had a miscarriage in July 2020, when her eldest child Archie was one, revealing her heartbreak in an article for The New York Times later that year. In the first episode of the podcast, released a fortnight ago, Meghan said she suffered medical complications after childbirth, and had to cope with the 'world' not knowing. The Duchess she had been diagnosed with post-partum pre-eclampsia following the birth of one of her children. Describing the condition, Meghan said: 'It's so rare. And its so scary.' 'You're still trying to juggle all these things and the world doesn't know what is happening, quietly and in the quiet you are still trying to show up for people. 'You're still trying to show up, mostly for your children. But those things are huge medical scares.' Whitney Wolfe Herd, founder of dating platform Bumble and the first guest on Meghan's podcast, added: 'They're life or death, truly.'
