Thursday, March 11, 2010

The Girl Effect


A good friend just announced that two twin baby girls, Lily and Clare, have entered the world this morning, and I am overcome with joy for them.

I'm on East Coast time in Santa Monica, awake early in a pretty and very low key neighborhood hotel called The Ambrose. We have meetings in LA before heading down later to Expo West in Anaheim.

One of our meetings is with Oprah Winfrey's new network, so I was on the site this morning, doing some background research and it never fails to amaze me the impact Oprah has made on the world. Certainly there is the "Oprah effect" that happens when she endorses a product you're involved with, but I believe there's a more profound effect that she's contributing to.

A few years ago I remember seeing something in Entertainment Weekly's Hot Sheet, that reflected Oprah's place on a Forbes Power list:
When aliens land on Earth and say 'take us to your leader', they'll take them to Oprah. As I have been bouncing back and forth between the coasts, literally and in my head, one thing that stands out the most (in addition to the weather!) is that New York and Los Angeles are such different cities in terms of prestige and what's valued most. Broadly speaking, New York can be about what you do, where you went to school, what organizations you're involved in, your success in whatever industry you're involved in. Los Angeles can be about what you look like, what type of car you drive, what your home is like, who you know.

On both cities' measures of success, however, it would be so unlikely to fathom that an overweight African-American woman from the Midwest would ever be the phenomenon that "Oprah" is, and stands for...which is really not about any of the items above, its about being
being your best self.

And despite superficial differences of New York and Los Angeles, and what's important in other regions of our country, I believe Oprah resonates because she's like us, like our country -- flawed, makes mistakes, learns as she goes, changes her mind, however she reflects to the masses the underlining philosophy that Everyone has value.

As a contrast to this, last week the Economist had a cover story on
gendercide "What happened to 100 million baby girls" which literally made me sick to my stomach, and I couldn't finish the story. Here's a wonderful video called "The Girl Effect' which is being shared around the world. All great changes that need to be made on the deepest humanitarian level outward must first begin with the idea. And that is what I know for sure.

Welcome to the world Lily and Clare. Can't wait to watch you grow.



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