This week on Mother Up, we’re unlocking the secret to boosting confidence through mentorship with the incredible Illana Raia, CEO of Être. Illana shares how the right mentors can bridge the “confidence gap,” especially for girls navigating life’s challenges.

We also get real about Illana’s journey, from her high-powered career as a lawyer to the unexpected twists of motherhood. Transitioning between these two worlds wasn't easy, and finding the right support system made all the difference.

In this episode of the Women in Leadership Talk podcast, host Vicki Bradley sits down with Illana Raia, a former corporate lawyer turned entrepreneur and founder of Être Girls. Illana shares her journey from the legal world to launching a groundbreaking organization that helps young women gain confidence and envision their futures by connecting them with female role models from leading companies like Spotify, the United Nations, and NASDAQ.

Illana explains how Être, meaning "to be" in French, encourages girls as young as 10 to ask, "Who do I want to be?" rather than "What do I want to be?" Through mentoring, hands-on experiences, and inspirational conversations with industry leaders, Être provides girls with opportunities to engage with women from all fields, giving them the confidence to see themselves in those roles.

Illana chats to Stephanie about why mentors matter for girls and how she began Être, a mentorship platform for girls. Believing that mentors matter as early as middle school, Illana brings girls directly into companies they select to meet female leaders face to face.

They've done the research and the stats are in fact staggering! Mentors matter as early as middle school because that’s precisely when girls’ confidence can falter. Were you aware that between the ages of 13 and 18 girls' confidence drops by 20%? Or that by the age of 14 girls drop their sport at 2X the rate of boys? Or that the sharpest fall-off of girls in computer science remains between 13 and 17? These are just a few data-driven facts Être shares and it's no wonder we need mentors early on in life. Watch until the end as Illana shares her story, top tips, challenges, and more. We would love to hear from you, did you have a mentor when you were starting out and how did they impact your confidence in the workplace?

Adrienne’s guest is Illana Raia, the CEO and founder of the organization Être Girls - a mentorship program and platform that connects professional women with school age girls. Her work helping and mentoring middle school and high school girls is both incredible and inspiring, as is Illana Raia! Her work connecting female mentors in large and small corporations all around the country with girls gives them an amazing opportunity to ask questions, to learn about certain professions, and to seek out role models so that they can become exactly who they want to be.

Illana Raia is the founder of Être Girls. ‘Who exactly do you want to be?’ – Être Girls, a knowledge strategy and a resource and mentorship platform for girls approaching high school. Do your children know much about your career? Do they think of you as the cook, driver, cleaner, supplier of your clothes and other various items? When Illana realized that her daughter had no clear idea of what she actually did or that the women who she was around were accomplished women in their own right, Illana decided she wanted to change that. Illana was determined to make sure that young girls knew that there are many options to choose from. And so, the beginnings of Être Girls.

Raise your hand. Don't lower your standards. That's the message from this week's guest Illana Raia, an attorney who left the profession to start her own company that aims to inspire middle school girls to stick with their creative passions and transform them into careers in the future.

Key Takeaways:

- Être means "To Be" in French, and the goal of this movement is to help today's girls figure out who they want to be.

- By bringing girls directly into companies to meet strong female leaders face to face, they meet role models at an early - and crucial - age.

- Middle school is not too early to talk with girls about big topics like financial confidence, female mentorship, philanthropy and entrepreneurship. In fact, it's exactly the right time.

- Illana wants "Every girl to raise her hand instead of lowering her standards.”

When developing the future female leaders of tomorrow, it’s so important for them to be aware of the female leaders that are impacting the world right now. Today’s Finding Brave guest was inspired by her own daughter to put female role models in front of girls at an early age, and as she shares, we all have a part to play in this critical movement.

According to reports, girls’ confidence and self-esteem peaks around age 9, and falls from there. We see it all the time, girls suddenly feel self-conscious of their appearance as their bodies change, they see women in the media and feel they need to wear makeup to get that airbrushed look, they hear gossip at sleepovers and feel they need to be the best at everything to stand out from the crowd and avoid being picked on. What can we do to help foster confidence in girls as they go through the difficult stages of middle school and high school? Here to talk us through it is Illana Raia: lawyer, lecturer, and CEO and Founder of Etre Girls, a mentorship platform for young girls.

The organization Être Girls bolsters middle school aged girls by finding female mentors at global brands to talk to the girls about how to “Be Smart, Be Wise, Be Innovative.” The group has a new book entitled, Être: Girls, Who Do You Want to Be? It features two Jacksonville girls involved in the movement and is already an Amazon best seller. We spoke about, “Être,” which means “to be,” with founder Illana Raia.

Être means “to be.” So, for Illana Raia, Être Girls was the perfect name for a resource for middle and high school. Être Girls uses mentorship to teach girls across the country to be informed, smart, brave, charitable, happy, strong, brave, strong, connected, wise, innovative and well-read. It’s ultimately helping young girls answer the question, who exactly do you want to be?

We got together with Illana to find out more about Être Girls and how middle and high school girls in Stamford can get involved!