TEDx “Girl is NOT a 4 Letter Word”

I was extremely honored to be asked to speak at TEDxYouth Santa Monica a few months back. OK, I was more than honored – I was stoked! I decided back in June of last year that I wanted to do a TEDx talk at some point in my life, but I really had no idea of how to go about it, or who to approach.

It turns out that a really cool woman (a previous Tedx speaker herself) had been following me on Facebook, liked what I had to say about empowering young women via my Girl is NOT a 4 Letter Word platform and suggested me to one of the TEDx event organizers. She connected us via email and next thing you know I was headed off 2 weeks later to a meeting with TEDx to see if my talk would be a good fit. I prepared a pitch and some visuals, met with the organizer and at the end of our meeting I was told that it was and I was IN!

Exciting yes. Scary? HELL YES.

I immediately started preparing and practicing what I wanted to say – TEDx is so different than any other type of speaking I have ever done. There are actually TEDx rules that you must follow and they can be difficult if you have never done a TEDx event before. No written notes, no “winging it”, no direct audience participation (asking questions etc), the talk must be 8-10 minutes for TEDxYouth and no more than 18 for all other TEDx. It must be an original idea and an idea worth spreading. Whew – nothing like a little pressure!

I hope you enjoy watching it and I hope you will let me know what you think – please feel free to share the link with others if you like – I sincerely hope that showing girls how to empower themselves is “an idea worth spreading”. xx