Somehow I had never seen Sheryl Sandberg's TED talk "Why we have too few women leaders" (though I am familiar with her book and have been meaning to read it). My mom said it is one of her favorites and that she always watches it before going to do contract negotiations.

I am reminded of a breakfast catering I assisted with a few months ago, for the meeting of a professional organization for local business owners and operators. The room was filled with talented and successful individuals from a variety of business fields, but I quickly realized that I was one of 5 women in the room—two of them secretaries helping to organize and execute the event, and the final two actual participants in the meeting. I had previously heard many of these kinds of statistics and anecdotes even, but seeing it with my own eyes was a vastly different experience.

I loved so many things that Sheryl Sandberg says and I have seen many similar evidences (besides the experience above) of the disparity between men and women in the workplace in my own brief time in a professional setting. While I am still comparatively young and inexperienced, I have realized more and more recently that I have valuable contributions and perspectives and that I should speak up and share them more. This was a great reminder and I think I will need to revisit this TED talk again and again.

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Adrienne and Jess released the second episode of their podcast yesterday—Fledgling. Speaking of talented and successful women, these are two of them (not to mention two of my favorite people). This podcast has been in the works for some time and I am excited to see it take off! Jess and Age share their insights and interviews with others about the ins and outs and ups and downs of adulthood.

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