What Would You Do If You Weren’t Afraid? – Lean In

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bAxQXZbhyvM]

By the time they graduate from college, more men than women see themselves as leaders. Lean In asked women to answer the question: What would you do if you weren’t afraid? Join the conversation: ifuwerentafraid.tumblr.com.

Congratulations, graduates, on this exciting occasion!

I join so many others in celebrating and applauding the hard work and perseverance that earned you your degree. And since no one accomplishes anything all alone, we also congratulate the people who nurtured you along the way—family, friends, and faculty. They share in the pride and joy of your achievements.

If your graduating class is anything like mine, some of your classmates have already pinpointed a path to the future, while others may not even know where to begin. Still, no matter what route you choose personally, I am writing to appeal to you to take on a critically important cause that will improve the lives of all: building a more equal world.

A truly equal world would be one where women ran half our countries and companies and men ran half our homes. I believe that this would be a better world. The laws of economics and studies of diversity tell us that if we tapped the entire pool of human resources and talent, our collective performance would improve. And studies of home life tell us that families where housework and childcare are shared evenly have happier parents and better outcomes for their children.

Over the past four years, you probably haven’t given much thought to gender inequality. When I graduated from college in 1991—and yes, I realize this was the year that most of you were born—I never thought about it either. My classmates and I believed that the feminists of the 1960s and 1970s had done the hard work of achieving equal opportunity for women. Now all we had to do was seize those opportunities.

But more than 20 years later, we are nowhere near equality for women. In the November 2012 election, women won more congressional seats than ever before, bringing them up to a (non-whopping) 18 percent. A mere 21 of the Fortune 500 CEOs are women and the percentage of women in executive roles in corporate America has barely budged over the past decade. The gap is even worse for women of color, who hold just 4 percent of top corporate jobs and 5 percent of congressional seats. This means that when it comes to making the decisions that most affect us all, women’s voices are not heard equally.

The gender biases in our society have already started to affect the way you view yourselves. Millennial women are less likely than their male peers to characterize themselves as “self-confident” and “leaders.” This may be one of the reasons that at the top fifty colleges, despite women comprising more than half of the student population, less than a third of student government presidents are women.

These lowered expectations extend into the workplace. For example, female college students have lower pay expectations than their male peers. Just a few years out of college, more men than women aspire to reach managerial levels. And even before women enter the workforce, they are often worrying about balancing future careers and families.

This generation can make the difference. It won’t be easy. It begins by admitting that we have a problem and committing to solve it.

Women need to believe in themselves, raise their hands, sit at the table, take risks, and support each other. They need to overcome their fears. Men need to support women, too, encouraging female peers in the workplace and doing their share in their homes. If women lean in to their careers and men lean in to treating women as true equals, together, you can end these biases and break down both the external and internal barriers that hold women back.

Let’s keep talking about these issues. Let’s start encouraging women to lead in whatever field they choose. And let’s all—men and women–support women as they do it. You can turn the promise of equality into true equality.

You are the hope for a brighter future.

Sheryl Sandberg is the chief operating officer of Facebook and the author of Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead. Join the conversation at LeanIn.org and ifuwerentafraid.tumblr.com.

Publishers Call Out For The Next Bestsellers

By NICHOLAS MILANES
Originally Published in the Fordham Observer
Blog Editor
Published: May 1, 2013

As final exams draw near, easily distracted as the collegiate mind with summer approaching, we have all asked ourselves what to do this summer. Here’s an idea: why not write a book?

Besides being a great way to fill the gap of time between Bonnaroo and Lollapalooza, it’s a great opportunity, since publishers like HarperCollins are actively seeking young college-age authors. New Adult Fiction is making waves; HarperCollins wants to help young authors make a splash.

New Adult Fiction is an emerging genre centered on college-age protagonists and characters. While plenty of us enjoy Young Adult (YA) novels like “The Hunger Games,” there’s no denying that as high school shrinks smaller and smaller in our horizon, we all crave something that hits a little closer to home.

“YA has always been really popular, and New Adult is actually a much wider world than YA,” said Tessa Woodward, editor at Avon Books, a HarperCollins imprint. “High school is a very enclosed space—you know, it’s just high school. But once you have these kids get out into the world, there’s such a broader range of things that they can experience. The younger writers aren’t afraid of having crazy emotional backstories for their characters.”

The New Adult Genre is free from the constraints of many long-established genres, but has roots in the “Twilight” franchise, which pushed the boundaries of sexual subject matter within YA novels and led to “Fifty Shades of Grey”—a trilogy whose success lies in its sexual frankness.

“YA is what we call a ‘closed door,’” Pamela Spengler-Jaffee said, director of publicity at Avon. “There might be something happening, but you don’t know, because of the readership of YA, and the rules of YA. For the most part, if they’re having any sort of relations, writers don’t write about it.”

Even if the story you want to write doesn’t involve whips and/or chains, a college-age story is likely to be a little less “Degrassi” and a little more “Girls”. New Adult presents an opportunity for writers to tell stories that are raw and real.

This is not to say a New Adult writer is constrained to college matters. “They’re not all set in colleges; it’s just that age group,” Lucia Macro said, vice president and executive editor at Avon. “Some of them have those situations that deal with college or university, but some of them do not; a lot of protagonists are forced into certain circumstances.” Many New Adult protagonists must skip college and live in the real world. New Adult authors are no strangers to confrontational subjects such as rape and unwanted pregnancy.

New Adult is not only a new genre, but a new form of community. Digital publishing is the lifeblood of the pioneering New Adult author, and blogs are the heart. “There are super readers on Goodreads,” Spengler-Jaffee said. “One is this woman named Maryse. She has a well-followed blog—when she recommends a new adult book, all of a sudden, 500 people put it on their shelves to be read. She’s like the Oprah of New Adult. She’s hosting a New Adult reader festival next month—the Orlando Book Bash. There’s a whole slew of authors confirmed to attend.”

The potential audience is growing alongside the genre. New Adult authors have been self-publishing online, on blogs and dedicated websites where fans can easily access them. Publishing houses are now beginning to distribute New Adult novels in the e-book format, making it quicker, cheaper and easier to get an author’s work in the hands of readers everywhere. A growing number of readers find themselves more willing to pay five dollars to download a book to their phone or e-reader than they are to shell out twenty-some dollars for a hardback.

The possibilities are endless for innovative stories and for publishing opportunities. You no longer need prior publishing experience in order to be published. “People are writing who aren’t necessarily taking creative writing classes. They’re not necessarily learning all of the rules of, ‘well, this is what a story should be,’” and there’s a lot more freedom in that. They say, ‘this is what I want to read, so I’m gonna write it down.’” There’s no better time than now to jot down those ideas that have bounced around in your head for so long. “It’s frontier era here. It’s exciting.”

Aspiring authors, send your submissions to Tessa Woodward, at tessa.woodward@harpercollins.com, or submit directly online at www.avonimpulse.com.