Holly Gordon | Girl Rising
Holly Gordon, named by Newsweek/Daily Beast as one of 125 Women of Impact in 2012 and selected by Fast Company as a member of the League of Extraordinary Women of 2012, is Co-Founder of Girl Rising, a global movement for girls' education whose mission is to change the way the world values the girl and Chairman of the Nantucket Project Scholars Program
Girl Rising: Educate Girls, Change the World was named the #1 Most Dynamic Social Initiative of 2012 by Forbes Magazine. The Girl Rising campaign brings together visionaries: girls, women, boys and men who know that educating girls is the smartest investment of our time. Holly and her team believe that educating girls can break cycles of poverty in just one generation. When girls are educated, communities thrive and economies grow. Yet 65 million girls around the world face barriers to education and are therefore missing from classrooms worldwide. Removing barriers such as early marriage, gender-based violence, domestic slavery and sex trafficking means not only a better life for girls, but a safer, healthier and more prosperous world for all.
In 2013, the critically acclaimed documentary film, Girl Rising, by Academy Award-nominated Director Richard E. Robbins with Holly Gordon as Executive Producer, was released and in just one year has reached over 1.5 million viewers. Narrated by Meryl Streep, Anne Hathaway, Alicia Keys, Freida Pinto and others, the documentary film is Girl Rising’s most dynamic tool for changing the way people see – and treat- girls. Viewers get to know nine unforgettable girls living in the developing world: ordinary girls who confront tremendous challenges and overcome nearly impossible odds to pursue their dreams.
Since inception, Girl Rising has raised more than $6 million dollars for girls in programs and in-country awareness and more than 1200 educators from 72 countries – Afghanistan to the Ukraine – and 41 U.S. states have downloaded the Girl Rising curriculum. Girl Rising, called a “social media and marketing phenomenon” by The Daily Beast, “Groundbreaking” by the Huffington Post and “One of the hottest ‘cause’ documentaries in years” by the New York Times has an extraordinary global reach of over 5 billion media impressions.
Most recently, Girl Rising partnered with Bobbi Brown Cosmetics as part of their Pretty Powerful Campaign for Women & Girls kicking off with the introduction of the Pretty Powerful Mascara (http://bobbibrown.com) where very cent of the retail price will be donated to the Girl Rising Fund.
