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SheKnows Media Announces First #BlogHer15: Experts Among Us Keynote Speakers: Girl Scouts of the USA CEO Anna Maria Chávez, Starfish Foundation Founder Soledad O'BrienSheKnows Media, the number-one women's lifestyle digital media company1 with 81.5 million unique visitors per month2 and 162 million social media fans and followers, today announced that #BlogHer15: Experts Among Us, taking place in New York, July 16-18, 2015, will open with a general session focused squarely on the next generation of online content creators, activists and leaders. Anna Maria Chávez, CEO of Girl Scouts of the USA, Soledad O'Brien, Founder and CEO of the Starfish Foundation, and Samantha Skey, Chief Revenue and Marketing Officer at SheKnowsMedia, will each take the main stage Friday morning, accompanied by girls and young women whose lives have been positively impacted by each organization's respective initiatives, and who represent the next generation of "Experts Among Us". Chávez is a lifetime member of Girl Scouts of the USA and an award-winning community leader whose passion for public service and social engagement has defined her career. Chávez has led Girl Scout's evolution to focus on supporting girls in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) learning - most notably with this year's launch of Digital Cookie, the groundbreaking new addition to the iconic Girl Scout Cookie Program. The organization's approach to STEM is framed in leadership-specifically, using leadership skills to make the world a better place. Chávez will be joined by a group of Girl Scouts who are accomplished innovators and leaders to talk about what inspires them. Together, they will discuss how Girl Scout's Leadership Experience has helped to empower them, and about their interest in technology as a mechanism for facilitating leadership. Follow Chávez on Twitter (News - Alert): @annamariachavez and @girlscouts. "I am delighted to bring Girl Scouts' passion for innovation to #BlogHer15: Experts Among Us," Chávez said. "Like SheKnows Media, Girl Scouts is committed to empowering girls to embrace their potential and be the 'makers' of tomorrow. At Girl Scouts, we have developed fun and innovative programs that prepare girls to be leaders in the STEM fields of tomorrow, such as robotics and coding. Girls are digital natives, and initiatives like our new Digital Cookie program allow girls to cultivate vital online skills, while engaging them in building their leaderships skills for the 21st century." O'Brien is an Emmy Award-winning reporter and critically acclaimed author, speaker and philanthropist. She reports for HBO Real Sports, National Geographic, Al Jazeera and other media organizations. O'Brien and her husband, Brad Raymond, created the Soledad O'Brien & Brad Raymond Starfish Foundation to help disadvantaged young women get to and through college. O'Brien will be joined onstage by top Starfih scholars with diverse interests, talents and educational paths. Together, they will share their experiences, the opportunities afforded by their education, and goals for the future. Follow O'Brien on Twitter: @soledadobrien. "I'm thrilled to be taking part in #BlogHer15: Experts Among Us," O'Brien said. "I'm excited for the opportunity to share the Starfish Foundation's mission of empowering and educating girls, alongside Girl Scouts of the USA and SheKnows Media. Empowering young women is the top focus of my organization, from the 25 core scholars within our daily program to the hundreds of high school- and college-aged girls we reach through our PowHERful Summit. I'm excited to be bringing along a few of our fabulous scholars to the conference to highlight firsthand what our Foundation does." SheKnows Media Opens Up its Hatch Program to #BlogHer15: Experts Among Us Attendees At SheKnows Media, Skey has been instrumental in conceptualizing and founding Hatch, a digital storytelling and media literacy program for kids. Hatch gives kids the tools and skills to create fun, inspiring and thoughtful content, and workshop materials can then be used by parents and educators to facilitate discussions with their own teens and tweens. Onstage during the Next Generation General Session, Skey will join Chávez and O'Brien, along with several young Hatch Ambassadors (a.k.a. "Hatchlings") who are making their voices heard on some of today's most pressing issues - including microaggressions, body image, gender stereotypes, and child hunger in America. In addition, #BlogHer15: Experts Among Us will feature its first-ever youth-focused programming track, aimed at parents, educators and other adults who work with kids. The programming will also be appropriate for tweens and teens and will explore growing up in today's hyper-connected environment, covering everything from dealing with FOMO (the fear of missing out) and "Like" Anxiety as perpetuated by social media, to helping kids learn to become good digital citizens. There will also be a hands-on workshop on Friday, July 17, called Hatch Labs, where older Hatch Ambassadors will mentor kids, tweens and teens as they explore the concepts of learning to lead. Hatch Labs participants will work on speaking up productively, defining causes that have personal meaning, and understanding how the social footprint they are creating is reflective of them now and will continue to be in the future. "Our youngest children, who were born since 2000 and who we at SheKnows Media refer to as Gen STEM, are true digital natives, having always known life with social media, mobile devices and the web," Skey said. "Because they have had so much exposure to information on a global scale - more so than any generation before them - kids at this age are particularly aware of and opinionated about a wide range of social issues. They are also more likely to be content creators, versus content curators. Hatch is committed to our mission of creating content for grown-ups made by kids with a mission, and we are thrilled to expand that to those attending #BlogHer15: Experts Among Us through the introduction of Hatch Labs." Follow Skey on Twitter: @samskey7. To learn more about Hatch Labs, email [email protected]. For more information or to register for #BlogHer15: Experts Among Us, click here. 1 comScore (News - Alert), Media Metrix, Multiplatform Lifestyles Category Ranking Reports, January & February 2015, U.S. 2 comScore, Media Metrix, Multiplatform Key Measures Report, February 2014, U.S. About SheKnows Media SheKnows Media is the number-one women's lifestyle digital media company with 81.5 million unique visitors per month (comScore, Media Metrix, Multiplatform Lifestyles Category Ranking Report, February 2015, U.S.) and 162 million social media fans and followers. The company operates a family of leading media properties that include SheKnows.com, BlogHer.com, StyleCaster.com, DailyMakeover.com, BeautyHigh.com and DrinksMixer.com. With a mission of women inspiring women, SheKnows Media is revolutionizing the publishing industry by forging a new kind of model that seamlessly integrates users, editors and content creators onto a single platform designed to empower all women to discover, share and create. Whether it's parenting or pop culture, fashion or food, DIY or décor, our award-winning editorial team, Experts, bloggers and social media influencers produce authentic and on-trend content every day. We dig deep to learn what makes our audience tick, revealing unexpected insights on women and digital media. Our robust, end-to-end suite of premium branded content and influencer marketing solutions generate more than 2 billion ad impressions per month (sources: DFP and OAS), allowing brands to distribute authentic content and integrated advertising at scale. SheKnows Media is based in New York and Scottsdale, Ariz., with offices in Los Angeles, Chicago and Belmont, Calif. We also operate internationally in Canada, Australia and the United Kingdom.
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