Hello Smart Girls!

I’m so excited to show you what I’ve been up to for the past few months! Some of you know that a year ago, I began training with the fabulous Martha Beck to become a life coach so I could take my work with teen girls and young women to a whole new level. Today, almost one year to the day from when my training began, I’m happy to announce that I’m a certified Martha Beck Life Coach and I’ve just launched a new website and a bunch of special life coaching packages just for teens!

I’ve also written a brand new ebook, What Smart Girls Know: 10 Truths to Discovering You, which I’m offering for FREE to people who sign up for my new newsletter over at debbiereber.com. This book is a passion project I’ve had in my mind for years, but never published with a traditional publisher. I’m thrilled to be able to make it available to you now…gotta love technology!

Oh, and if you’re interested in life coaching, here some of the one-on-one coaching offerings I’ve put together specifically for teens and 20-somethings. You can get all the details on my new Coaching Page:

SELF-DISCOVERY 101

In a world where teens are bombarded with mixed, and often harmful, media messages, face ongoing pressure to be a “perfect good girl,” and are stuck somewhere between their big dreams and their current reality, it can be challenging to figure out what sparks their passion, let alone where they want it to take them in their lives. This eight-session one-on-one coaching program is aimed helping girls tune into what makes them uniquely them, identify their values and passions, understand the limiting beliefs that get in their way, and build a personal toolbox for moving forward in life in an authentic, purposeful, and powerful way. For motivated teen girls ages 13 – 19.

SIX-WEEK STRESS BUSTER

Today’s overscheduled, overprogrammed teens are dealing with unprecedented stress levels in their quest to be and do it all. This six-week one-on-one coaching program offers motivated teen girls ages 13-19 simple strategies for juggling it all, managing their stress, and creating more balance in their lives.

THE GOAL GETTER

Today’s teens are big dreamers, and as a collective, they’ve been told their whole life that they can do and be anything they can imagine. But many are missing the concrete strategies and skills they need to shift from imagine to action. This six-week one-on-one coaching program helps motivated teen girls ages 13-19 working toward a specific goal or goals imagine the possibilities, tackle fear and procrastination, create a foolproof plan of action, and set achievable goals.

ORGANIZE YOUR LIFE

For the busy teen juggling schoolwork, extracurriculars, and other obligations, a little organization can go a long way. This six-week one-on-one coaching program helps teens ages 13-19 understand the benefits of organizing all different aspects of their lives and give them solid organizational strategies and tools that will help them prioritize, save time, reduce the chaos in their life, and ultimately create a less-stressed life!

SENIOR YEAR SEND-OFF

Senior year of high school is an exciting, interesting, and often challenging time as big transitions are looming and teens find themselves at the intersection of their familiar high school existence and the unknown of what comes next. This six-week one-on-one coaching program helps motivated, college-bound high school senior girls hone in on their personal values, discover their voice, learn how to tackle fear, and create a strong foundation for personal self-care.

PROJECT YOU

Project You is a twelve-week coaching program for 20-somethings who are feeling stuck, trapped, and limited by their current reality. This intensive program helps 20-somethings hone in on their limiting beliefs, rewrite their personal story, reconnect with their purpose, imagine their ideal outcome, and gain the strategies and tools they need to make it happen.

* * * * *

With the start of my new site, I’ve also launched a new blog which will feature less newsy news and more insight and reflections for young women. Therefore, I won’t be updating Smart Girls Know any longer. I will, however, keep this site up so you’ll continue to have access to the past 4 years worth of content, interviews, book reviews, affirmations, and more. Thanks so much for being a part of the Smart Girls Know community, and I hope you’ll join me over at debbiereber.com!

XOXO Debbie

MTV and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation have recently partnered with Get Schooled, an organization aimed at raising awareness for the need to decrease dropout rates, improve standards for post-secondary readiness, and increase the number of qualified graduates entering the work force each year, to create the Get Schooled: College Affordability Challenge. This challenge is calling on current and aspiring college students to imagine innovative digital tools to reimagine and simplify the financial aid process.

Three finalists were recently selected from hundreds of submissions from students in 48 states, and you can vote on who you want to win on MTV later this month. Here are the finalists:

Larissa Simpson, The Avatar Project – Larissa is proposing an interactive gaming experience that helps students navigate the process of securing grants, scholarships, and loans to finance their education. Users can personalize their gaming experience using an avatar that guides them through each stage of the process. Positive reinforcement and guided connection with peers through existing social networks will encourage students to meet deadlines and fulfill their college financing goals.

Devin Valencia, The Connect Fund – Devin’s proposing an interactive Facebook application offering a step-by-step guide on how to fill out the FAFSA and apply for grants, scholarships, and loans. The app will prioritize financial aid opportunities based on the user’s demographic info, as well as enable them to get other users’ feedback on their financial aid questions and concerns.

Dekunle Somade, First Aid – Dekunle envisions a single-source online and SMS platform designed to serve as a college financing tool for low-income students. First Aid will organize a wide array of financial aid and admissions info, and make it easier for institutions’ financial aid offices to communicate with students in need. The platform will also track users’ progress towards securing funding for school, and alert them to relevant scholarship and grant opportunities.

The winner will receive $10,000 and see their idea funded by MTV and The College Board Advocacy & Policy Center with a development budget of $100,000, to become a part of the national Get Schooled campaign.

Are you a high school junior or senior looking for summer growth opportunities? You might want to look into these programs I just learned about courtesy of the Northwest Girls Coalition.

The first is the Student Leaders Program through the Bank of America’s Charitable Foundation, which is open to high school juniors and seniors who have a passion for improving their community. The program aims to “put passion into action” by providing selected students with an 8-week paid internship at a nonprofit organization, as well as an all-expenses paid week-long Student Leadership Summit in Washington, DC where they’ll gain civic, social, and business leadership skills. Interested? Fill out the online application here (deadline is January 12, 2011).

The second opportunity is the Bezos Scholars Program at the Aspen Institute, which will award twelve pairs of top public high school juniors and educators a seven-day, all-expenses-paid scholarships to attend the Aspen Ideas Festival next summer. To be eligible for the program, the student and educator team must be independent thinkers, demonstrated leaders, and engaged community member, and come from a public high school (including charter and magnet schools) at which at least 25 percent of students are eligible for the free/reduced lunch program. The school must offer Advanced Placement, International Baccalaureate, or the opportunity to take college/community college courses.

To qualify, student applicants must be public high school juniors during the 2010-11 academic year who: demonstrate leadership in school and community, have a GPA of 3.5 or higher and have scored exceptionally well on PSAT/SAT/or ACT, are enrolled in Advanced Placement/International Baccalaureate/college classes, and are legal U.S. citizens or permanent residents of the U.S.

Visit the Bezos Family Foundation website to review the school and scholar criteria, view videos, and download the program flyer, application form, and an FAQ. Deadline for applications is February 11, 2011.

In today’s world where women make up nearly half of the workforce and more women than men are graduating from college, it would be easy to think that women have the same opportunities to succeed in any career as men do. Unfortunately, it’s just not true. A new article on the Newsweek Education website entitled “Year of the Woman? Eight Jobs That Are Still Sexist” highlights eight different careers in which women are still struggling to make their mark and break through that infamous glass ceiling.

Here are the 8 job fields featured in the article:

1. Journalism: Despite the fact that more women go to journalism school than men, they are vastly underrepresented. The Global Media Monitoring Project found that only 24% of people interviewed, heard, seen, or read about in the news (TV, radio, and print) are women.
2. Law: Women are 1/2 of all law-school graduates, but less than 1/4 of law-firm partners, and on average, female attorneys are paid $66,000 less than male attorneys.
3. Business: Only 3% of Fortune 500 CEOs are women.
4. Science & Engineering: 31% of women with technical jobs switch into another career field – 63% of these women say they experienced workplace harassment, and 50% say they had to “act like a man” to succeed.
5. Film & Entertainment: Only 16% of directors, executive producers, producers, writers, and cinematographers are women.
6. Politics: The U.S. ranks 71st out of 189 countries when it comes to how many women are on national legislatures.
7. Nursing: 9 out of 10 nurses are women, but they only earn 88 cents to every dollar a male nurse makes.
8. Academia: Women make up just 26% of professors, 23% of university presidents, and 14% of presidents at the doctoral degree–granting institutions.

I have to be honest – not many of these career fields and statistics surprised me. In researching my book about women and careers, In Their Shoes, I found plenty of evidence to back up the reality that women are severely underrepresented in fields like science, business, film and entertainment, and journalism.

However, there is one occupation on the above list that did catch me off guard – nursing. I find it hard to believe that even in an industry where women make up the vast majority of professionals, men are still paid more. 12  cents for every dollar more. Which may not seem like a big deal, but turns out to be significant. A female nurse may be earning $50,000 a year while a male colleague with the exact same experience, training, and education would earn $56,000 based on this model. That’s $500 more per month, enough to impact someone’s quality of life.

When I read stories like this, I think back to the start of my own career, back when I had just graduated from Penn State, moved to New York City, and got an entry level job at an advertising agency for $16,000. I was the assistant to two media directors, and barely made enough money to cover my Diet Coke addiction, let alone pay for my share of the rent in my closet-like apartment and the Ramen noodles that made up the bulk of my diet. But it was the only way to break in – the way I saw it, I had to pay my dues, suck it up, and deal.

Though this was a while ago, I still remember the moment I realized that something fishy was going on at the agency. As I looked around, I noticed a disturbing trend: all of the female recent college grads like myself were in assistant roles, earning a pittance while we fetched coffee, made lunch reservations, typed up memos, and ran errands. Yet the male recent college grads were doing something completely different. They were assistant media planners – one level above where we women were. They were actually getting to go to lunches, participate in meetings, be a part of the action, not to mention bringing in about $8,000 more a year.

When I asked around to find out what was going on, the best we could up with was that we women had done better on the typing tests we had to take through the employment agency that originally placed us than our male counterparts. We were fast, accurate, efficient and eager to please. The perfect qualities for a young assistant, right? Right. But isn’t there something wrong with the picture when being good at something actually holds you back? Of course, I never said anything about this discrepancy to any higher ups at the company. I figured that if I did good work I would get noticed and promoted and paid what I was worth. I was afraid to rock the boat. Afraid to ask for what I wanted. Afraid to come off as being pushy. Instead, I quit after 9 months.

That first job was many (many!) years ago, but I’m sorry to say that it marked the beginning in a line of jobs where I took a similar wait and see approach. I didn’t know how to advocate for myself, let alone negotiate my salary. As I moved up in my career, this last piece became a bigger and bigger factor, as the difference between what I was earning versus what my male counterparts were was widening. Why? Because as I moved from job to job and company to company, my previous salary was always a factor in the new offer. Since I was on the low end of the pay scale, my new employer would offer me only a little more, figuring they were getting a great deal – high quality work for a low cost. And they were right. It was a good deal. For them. By the time I moved to LA as a development executive for a TV channel, my salary was way below the average for my position, especially compared with the men I knew doing my job for other networks, but I was stuck. They’d gotten me cheap because I didn’t know to ask for more. Ultimately, I left that position after a few years to strike out on my own as a writer. And boy, if anything has taught me to ask for what I want, it’s been being my own boss.

I know that today there are thousands upon thousands of recent young women college grads looking to break in and get started with their career, just like I was so many years ago. And in this climate, it might be tempting to take what you can get and say yes to any offer. If this is you, I urge you to respect yourself enough to ask for what you want. Advocate for yourself and negotiate. Because I just about guarantee you – young men in your position being offered jobs are negotiating. And they’re not just asking for what they want – they’re expecting to get it. According to Linda Babcock and Sara Laschever, authors of Women Don’t Ask, men initiate negotiations 4 times as often as women do. When women do negotiate, they don’t think they can get much, so they ask for and get less – 30% less than men!

Sigh. If only I’d read that statistic back in 1991. But it’s not too late for you! Ask for what you want today and maybe twenty years from now, Newsweek will be writing the story that says women have finally achieved true equality in the workforce!

I just stumbled upon a great website called GirlTalk Radio, a mentoring initiative that encourage girls to explore science, math, engineering and technology in their own words.

On GirlTalk Radio, girls ages 11-16 interview successful women working in science, engineering and technology for the locally broadcast radio program. I love this idea, not just because I’m a big fan of giving girls real, honest info on career possibilities, but because the girls themselves are driving the whole program.

In these candid, interesting interviews, the girls dig deep to find out what these career women actually do. In the first two season, GirlTalk teen hosts have interviewed many cool women, including:

• Nina Kang, Google Maps software engineer
• Tanya Martinez, renewable energy entrepreneur
• Vera Donnenberg, UPMC stem cell researcher
• Tonya Groover, founder, Technology Leadership Institute
• Dr. Bernadine Dias, professor of robotics at Carnegie Mellon University
• Erin Copeland, a restoration ecologist with the Pittsburgh Parks Conservancy

Though GirlTalk is based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, you can listen to all the interviews on the GirlTalk website.

And if you want to find out more about math, science, and technology careers, check out my book , in which I interview a marine biologist, software engineer, urban planner, accountant, and forensic scientist.