International Women’s Day – Unstoppable

Vivien Killilea | Getty Images Entertainment | Getty Images

In honor of International Women’s Day, I would like to highlight a couple of women that stand out to me so far in 2021.  These women are very different from each other and stand out in different ways, but they both happen to be 31 years old.  Interesting!

The first is Whitney Wolfe Herd.  Whitney Wolfe Herd, the founder and CEO of Bumble, launched the app in 2014 with the aim of creating a comfortable and empowering online dating space for women. Bumble has since expanded beyond dating to networking and friendship, and was valued in 2019 at about $3 billion.¹ Bumble went public on February 11^th under the symbol “BMBL” and resulted in a market cap of over $8 billion.²  You heard me … $8 billion!  Wowzer!  At 31, Whitney is the youngest female CEO to ever lead an IPO.  Bumble designed the app to prevent harassment and verbal abuse and prides itself on being an advocate for women.  It’s hard to say how successful the app is in these efforts; it is very difficult and ever evolving after all.  It is, however, very clear that the concept is admirable, and the female marketing is genius.   Respect to Whitney Wolfe Herd for her spunk, thoughtfulness, and determination.

US surfing star Bethany Hamilton practices her airs in Bali, Indonesia. Photograph: Lieber Films.

Determination leads me into my next 2021 female stand-out, Bethany Hamilton.  Bethany Hamilton is a professional, competitive surfer who lost her arm in a shark attach when she was 13 years old.  She wrote a book that inspired the movie “Soul Surfer”.  Then, while intending to do a 10 minute action film to promote women’s surfing, she agreed to a full blown documentary of her life released in 2018 called “Unstoppable”.  Bethany recently turned 31 and had her 3^rd child on February 14^th.  Her resilience is truly amazing as she continues to actively pursue her faith in God, love of surfing, and passion for being a mother all at the same time.  Respect to Bethany Hamilton for leading by example with honesty, grit, humor, and faith to inspire women to relentlessly pursue their dreams.

Let’s take our queue from these girls in 2021 and be UNSTOPPABLE.

¹https://www.businessofapps.com/data/bumble-statistics/ – Bumble Valuation – 2019.

²https://www.businessofapps.com/data/bumble-statistics/ – Bumble Valuation -2020.