Girls Who Start (GWS), the Washington, D.C. based non-profit organization dedicated to inspiring young women to become entrepreneurs and leaders, announced today that it will host its first ever Girls Who Start Entrepreneurship Summit on Saturday, April 6th from 11am – 2:30pm at Halcyon in Georgetown located at 3400 Prospect Street NW, Washington, DC 20007. Open to female students of all ages including middle school, high school, college and graduate school, the Summit will provide an opportunity for attendees to hear stories and advice from a mix of leading female entrepreneurs, including celebrity keynote speaker, supermodel, entrepreneur and mom, Elle Macpherson. Admission is free and attendees must pre-register at www.girlswhostart.org/summits, seating is limited.

Fifteen-year-old Founder and National President of Girls Who Start, Ariel Beck, has assembled a roster of female founders from leading companies and brands to speak at the event, along with more than 150 female student attendees. Presenting the keynote discussion for the inaugural Summit is legendary model, Co-Founder and Creative Director of WelleCo, Elle Macpherson. Following her iconic modelling career, Elle, who is an advocate for beauty from the inside out, sits at the helm of an authentic global business, empowering people to positively influence their own health.

No stranger to strong female leads, Ariel Beck is the daughter of Marla and Barry Beck, the Co-Founders of the iconic, national luxury beauty brand, Bluemercury. Ariel was first inspired to launch Girls Who Start in 2015 after hearing her mother, Marla speak at Amazon’s first Women’s Entrepreneur’s Conference in Seattle. After learning of the unsettling statistics surrounding today’s female founders and how most funding goes to male entrepreneurs, Ariel felt called to rally her generation of young women. She created Girls Who Start to provide successful female role models to serve as a source of inspiration and encouragement. She and her team of Chapter Leaders host events, Q+A sessions and workshops with female founded companies and social ventures.

“I have had the privilege to be surrounded by incredible female entrepreneurs from a young age,” said Beck. “The statistics surrounding the number of female entrepreneurs today are not good. I’ve been lucky to have exposure to great entrepreneurs, including Trish McEvoy, Bobbi Brown, Holly Thaggard, and Sarah Happ, and, of course, my mom. I feel it is my duty to provide other girls my age with the same opportunities and experiences. I hope this Summit will inspire our girls to apply the tools and advice they receive to take on more leadership roles – by starting new clubs, organizations, social ventures and companies of their own.”

Additional speakers at the event include Natalie Mackey, CEO and Founder of Winky Lux, Elizabeth Galbut, Founding Partner of SOGAL Ventures, Shizu Okusa, Co-Founder of JRINK, Kori Hale, CEO and Founder of CultureBanx, Lauren & Carrie Dunne, Co-Founders of Varnish Lane, and Claire Shipman, Senior National Correspondent for ABC’s Good Morning America and Author of The Confidence Code for Girls.

Sponsors for this year’s Summit include Halcyon, J.P. Morgan, UBS, New Enterprise Associates, Merrill Lynch Bank of America Corporation, SOGAL Ventures, S’well, Kendra Scott, Cooley and LearnServe International, to name a few. For more information on the summit and to register to attend, students should visit https://www.girlswhostart.org/summits.

“My hope for this event, in addition to encouraging my peers to make their entrepreneurial ideas a reality, is to create a community of future female leaders that will change the world,” said Ariel Beck.

About Girls Who Start:

Girls Who Start is a non-profit organization with a mission to inspire young women to become entrepreneurs and leaders through exposure to other leading female founded companies and social ventures, as well as providing tools and tips on how to start a company or organization of their own. Girls Who Start was founded in 2015 after then twelve-year-old, Ariel Beck accompanied her mother, Marla Beck, CEO and Co-Founder of Bluemercury, to a speaking engagement at Amazon’s first Women’s Entrepreneur’s Conference in Seattle. It was there Ariel learned about the shockingly low statistics surrounding female entrepreneurship and leadership. Ariel realized how lucky she was to have this kind of exposure at an early age and felt she owed it to other young women to provide them with the same experience. Now a sophomore in high school, Ariel is on a mission to follow in the footsteps of the trailblazing women who are paving the way in entrepreneurship and is encouraging her peers to do the same. Ariel Beck, National Founder and President of Girls Who Start, directs a team of Chapter Leaders who host local events and Q+A sessions with female founded companies and social ventures and share tools and advice to inspire young girls to take on leadership roles.

For more about Girls Who Start, please visit https://www.girlswhostart.org/ and follow @girls.who.start on Instagram.

Female students who have questions about this event or wish to launch a local chapter of Girls Who Start at their own school(s) should contact Founder and National President, Ariel Beck through the girlswhostart.org site.