View the 2016 Girls Write Now Awards Program

2016 GIRLS WRITE NOW AWARDS Tuesday May 17 6-9:30 PM Three Sixty° Tribeca & partner to debut LENA DUNHAM’S new book, Is This Evil? Lena and Jenni, and their creations, are “the result of talent, risk-taking, and devout mentorship from generations before them. The Girls Write Now model is based on these principles, and we are thrilled to partner with such groundbreaking writers and artists.” -Maya Nussbaum, Founder & Executive Director, Girls Write Now All proceeds from Lena’s book will directly support Girls Write Now programs PROGRAM EMCEES ALICIA MENENDEZ Anchor & Special Correspondent, Fusion KIRBY-ESTAR LAGUERRE Mentee, Girls Write Now OPENING REMARKS MAYA NUSSBAUM Founder & Executive Director, Girls Write Now TRAILBLAZER HONOREE JANET MOCK Author, Redefining Realness & the forthcoming Firsts: A Memoir of the Twenties Experience, & Host, MSNBC’s SoPOPular! PERFORMANCE JADA FITZPATRICK Mentee, Girls Write Now LINDA KLEINBUB Mentor, Girls Write Now SYMBOLIC AUCTION ALICIA MENENDEZ KAMY WICOFF Board Member, Girls Write Now GAMECHANGER HONOREE JOHN OSBORN President & CEO, BBDO New York SPECIAL REMARKS GLORIA JACOBS Board Chair, Girls Write Now GROUNDBREAKER HONOREE JENNI KONNER Executive Producer, Writer, & Director, HBO's Girls & Co-Founder, LennyLetter.com GIRLS WRITE NOW mentors underserved young women to find their voices through the power of writing and community. Founded in 1998, Girls Write Now is New York’s first and only writing and mentoring organization for girls. Girls Write Now has been distinguished twice by the White House and the President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities as one of the nation’s top after school programs, twice by the Nonprofit Excellence Awards as one of New York’s top ten nonprofits, and twice by the New York City Council as one of the city’s top girl- focused initiatives. Our girls—over 90% high need and over 95% girls of color—have performed at Lincoln Center and the United Nations, published original work in Newsweek, Elle India, AOL Cambio/Huffington Post, and our award-winning anthology, and earned hundreds of Scholastic Art & Writing Awards. 100% of our seniors go on to college. We are poised for INNOVATIVE GROWTH with a strategic plan to double the number of girls we serve and to enhance our college prep and alumnae services, extending the support we provide young women writers into college, career, and beyond. There is no better time to invest. THE GIRLS WRITE NOW AWARDS is where we honor leaders who have paved the way for our girls to break through boundaries, both in life and in writing, to realize their promise and possibilities. Our honorees embody the principles we instill in our girls: dedication to craft, determination to tell a story with honesty and brilliance, and a passion to live life fearlessly. Girls Write Now mentors the next generation of writers, and our honorees are evolving the narrative and igniting change for our girls. Girls Write Now, you are filling the “ SHAKEVA heart, the mind, the body. And truly, GRISWOULD it's a revolutionary act.” Girls Write Now Mentee, CHAPTERS — GLORIA STEINEM Reading Series EMCEE EMCEE ALICIA MENENDEZ KIRBY-ESTAR Anchor & Special LAGUERRE Correspondent, Fusion Girls Write Now Mentee When the women of Girls These past three years have “Write Now walked into our “been extremely memorable, writers' room they filled the and I cannot believe that our room with verve. As we shared time is about to end. I am stories and ideas, it was clear beyond grateful to have found through their contributions who I am as a writer and a that these were young women of unlimited potential, buoyed by young woman with the help of my mentor Avra and Girls Write the support of a community.” Now. Though this chapter may be over, I will continue to write. About “her,” about “him,” about “it.” About it all.” ALICIA MENENDEZ is an anchor and special correspondent at Fusion. Named “Broadcast Journalism’s New Gladiator” by Elle KIRBY-ESTAR LAGUERRE, a third year mentee, was born magazine, and “Ms. Millennial” by The Washington Post, Alicia has and raised in Brooklyn. She balances competitive dance classes, attend- emerged as one of the most influential voices of her generation. Most ing writing workshops with the Girls Write Now community, participat- recently, Alicia co-moderated the Brown & Black Presidential Forum ing in as many school events as possible (Hispanos Unidos and SING), in Iowa, pressing the Democratic hopefuls on issues of importance to and finding the time to volunteer. Kirby is a recipient of a Scholastic Art African-American and Hispanic communities. Alicia has also & Writing Award and has written in Alicia Menendez's writing room. contributed reporting to ABC’s Nightline and World News, as well as She recently won a Posse Scholarship to Vanderbilt University, where ABC’s Emmy-nominated 2014 Election Night coverage, and shared her she will be going in the fall. spirited take on current events on Good Morning America, This Week, and The View. How proud am I of Kirby? So, so proud. Because of her hard “work, smarts, talent, and maturity, she snagged a full scholarship From 2014 through 2015, Alicia produced and hosted a one-hour primetime special, Generation in Crisis, for which she traveled to to college. I never doubted for a moment she would wind up at a El Salvador, Jordan, and Rwanda to report on the international great school. It has been a delight getting to know her these past implications of a lost generation. Before joining Fusion, Alicia was three years and to see her develop into a strong, self-assured, an inaugural host and producer on the Internet-based video streaming serious, and seriously funny, woman. What a world of knowledge network HuffPost Live. about teenage life she has given me! I will miss her, but I cannot wait to see what she accomplishes next.” —Avra Wing, Girls Write Now Mentor TRAILBLAZER GAMECHANGER HONOREE HONOREE JANET MOCK JOHN OSBORN Author, Redefining Realness & the President & CEO, BBDO New York forthcoming Firsts: A Memoir of the Twenties Experience, & Host, Creativity, storytelling and MSNBC’s SoPOPular! “brilliant writing powers our industry and the world at large. Only in telling my story The work Girls Write Now is “have I been able to step into my doing to nurture the talent of power as my own protagonist the next generation is both so I recognize how vital Girls Write Now is, giving a brilliant inspiring and vital. We're humbled to support those who create the generation of young sister-writers the tools, encouragement, and narrative.” power to see themselves as the heroines of their own stories.” JOHN OSBORN is President and Chief Executive Officer of JANET MOCK is the New York Times bestselling author of BBDO New York, creators of the Barbie “Imagine the Possibilities” Redefining Realness and the forthcoming Firsts: A Memoir of the campaign. John has been in this role for twelve years – longer than Twenties Experience, and the host of So POPular! — a weekly any other New York agency head. Under John’s leadership, BBDO MSNBC digital series about culture. She is a sought-after speaker and New York has more than doubled revenues, expanded its client base to the founder of #GirlsLikeUs, a social media project that empowers include categories like retail, healthcare, and more, and diversified its trans women. workforce. The result: BBDO New York has been named an Agency of the Year 15 times by various media outlets, including in 2015. Born in Hawaii, Janet’s story of growing up trans caught the nation’s attention in a 2011 Marie Claire article. Since then she’s become one of John joined BBDO New York in 1991. Over the years, he has the most influential trans women and millennial leaders in media. TIME demonstrated that he is an energetic, positive, and passionate leader called her one of “12 new faces of black leadership” and one of “the most with a proven ability to build strong client relationships and to lead influential people on the Internet” while Fast Company named her one big multi-disciplinary teams in the creation of powerful communication of 2015’s “most creative people in business.” Now, Janet finds herself on programs. For example, he has been actively involved with many of the the other side of the story as a Contributing Editor for Marie Claire, a agency’s clients including FedEx, GE, J&J, Pfizer, CVS, Subway, Lowe’s, host for MSNBC, and correspondent for Entertainment Tonight. Mars, Visa, and the American Red Cross, to name a few. He began his BBDO career on Pepsi and was the principal architect of the agency’s integrated marketing efforts, expanding their offerings to include digital and social marketing, CRM, design, and more. He was named President and CEO of the New York agency in February 2004. GROUNDBREAKER PERFORMERS HONOREE JENNI KONNER Executive Producer, Writer, & Director, HBO’s Girls & Co-Founder of LennyLetter.com My whole life has been “supported by the gift of being given the space to tell stories. Seeing these brilliant and driven young women take on the world through words gives me so much hope for the future, both of television and the world.” MENTEE MENTOR JENNI KONNER began her career as a writer on Judd Apatow’s celebrated television series, Undeclared. In 2012, she joined Lena Dunham as Executive Producer on HBO’s hit TV series, Girls, which JADA FITZPATRICK LINDA KLEINBUB follows the lives of four young women living in New York City. In 2014, was born in Waterbury, is a third year mentor at Girls Jenni and Lena co-founded A Casual Romance Production.

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