How To Encourage More Women To Become Entrepreneurs
Forbes
Jeannine Shao Collins is the co-creator of TLC’s new reality competition series Girl Starter and cofounder and co-CEO of the multi-platform company with the same name. The television show features eight young female entrepreneurs who are competing for $100,000 of seed funding and resources. The young women participate in challenges designed by mentors, investors, business leaders and celebrities as they proceed through the Girl Starter curriculum for building a company: start it, plan it, prove it, build it, brand it and fund it.
What inspired you to start Girl Starter? What was your career path?
My daughter Julia first came up with the idea for Girl Starter in 2014. She attended the Duke Women’s Forum with my cofounder Dani, who is an alumna and is still very involved with the forum.
Following the event, Julia mentioned to Dani that she felt that the conversation around women “leaning in” needed to happen when girls are moldable—way earlier than college. After numerous conversations with my husband and Dani (both cofounders), we developed a treatment for a show.
As for my career path, I worked in advertising and media at Meredith for years and became chief innovation officer.
You’ve said that you initially thought about the project three years ago when your daughter started to talk about gender equality at work and entrepreneurship. How did you go from candid conversations into a television show on TLC? What was the trajectory for making it happen?
