Featured Stories, Elevate Women In STEAM+, Page 2

Colorado ‘rainbow baby’ named Gerber Baby winner for 2023

by Amaris Encinas

This year’s Gerber Baby is a military kid from Colorado with a captivating look and even more adventurous spirit.

Maddie Mendoza also won the 13th annual Gerber Baby photo search because of an adorable throwback photo of her mom as a baby and her parent’s story of love and resilience. For the first time ever, parents were encouraged to submit photos of themselves as babies and their own baby.

"With Gerber's continued support of March of Dimes' maternal and infant health programs, together, we can make a lasting impact on maternal and infant health, ensuring that every baby has the best start in life. ···

No longer suffering in silence: Asian Americans denied tech leadership roles go to court

by Jessica Guynn

After stints at Disney, Google and Twitter, Vaishnavi Jayakumar joined Facebook and Instagram owner Meta in January 2020.

Her job on the youth policy team was to protect children and teens from bullying, harassment and other forms of abuse. But Jayakumar – an Asian American originally from Singapore – says she couldn’t shield herself from racial bias on the job.

Black Harvard And Princeton Students Graduate At Higher Rates Than Classmates Overall, Equally At Yale

by Shaun Harper

The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled race-conscious college admissions policies and practices unconstitutional. Affirmative Action opponents have long argued that admitting presumably unqualified applicants of color to highly-selective institutions sets those students up for failure because they can't do the work. If completing a bachelor's degree is a reasonable measure of whether someone has what it takes to succeed in the Ivy League or at another highly-selective university, then federal data from the three institutions where admission slots are among the most coveted in the world confirm that Black students are indeed more than capable and deserving of the opportunities they earned. ···

POV: The head of DEI should not report to HR

by Amira Barger

From Princeton to Netflix to Meta, we have seen massive turnover among Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) leaders. A survey from Korn Ferry found that the average tenure of a Chief Diversity Officer (CDO) is under 24 months—one of the shortest average tenures among all executives. An estimated 60% of CDOs left positions between 2018 and 2021, often noting a lack of institutional support as the cause as well as a lack of resources, a lack of authority, a lack of specificity, and a lack of belief. Industry insights are clear, the scope of the problem is broad, and individuals are not to blame. ···

She Built an App to Block Harassment on Twitter. Elon Musk Killed It

by Billy Perrigo

Tracy Chou launched the Twitter app Block Party in 2021 to help users escape targeted harassment campaigns that she—as an Asian American woman—knew from personal experience could ostracize vulnerable voices from the public conversation. But on Wednesday Block Party closed its doors, becoming the latest victim of soaring new bills imposed by a struggling Twitter under new owner Elon Musk.

Under Twitter's former ownership, Chou struck a deal with the company for free access to data—a win-win arrangement that would allow Block Party to grow and provide Twitter with a valuable anti-harassment tool to which it didn't have to devote expensive engineering time. ···

These 2 Pageant Queens Want to Make Your Dress Dreams Come True

by Victoria Flexner

Trisha Bantigue and Kathy Zhou are two former pageant queens who knew intimately the struggles of purchasing expensive formalwear on a budget. In 2019, the two started Queenly, an online marketplace for affordable formalwear for weddings, black tie events, prom and everything in between. Bantigue and Zhou also offer customers an option to sell items – so that bridesmaids dress that only got worn once can find a new home. The San Francisco, California-based entrepreneurs have been scaling up Queenly at a rapid pace since their launch –today, they have 14 employees, funding from Silicon Valley VCs, and a mentor in none other than Julie Wainwright, the founder of The RealReal. ···

Women Are Being Pushed Off the Edge of the Glass Cliff. Here’s What That Means and What to Do About It.

by Julie Kratz

You've probably heard of the glass ceiling when it comes to women in the workplace, but the "glass cliff" is just as harmful.

Whereas the glass ceiling is a metaphor for the barrier women face in the workplace, the "glass cliff" builds on that idea — it's the phenomenon in which female executives are only given leadership roles in seemingly impossible situations like crises, economic collapses or negative public relations incidents. Women are seen as the right choice to clean up a mess, but not to lead when times are good. Even today, there are recent examples of this including Marissa Mayer's tenure at Yahoo, Jill Soltau's time overseeing the collapse of J.C. Penney, Peggy Johnson at Magic Leap and Heyward Donigan at Rite Aid. ···

Ming-Na Wen, ‘Joy Luck Club’ actor, will finally get a star on Hollywood Walk of Fame

by Kimmy Yam

The actor's "Joy Luck Club" co-stars Tamlyn Tomita, Lauren Tom and Rosalind Chao will be delivering speeches during the unveiling ceremony.

Actress Ming-Na Wen is getting a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Wen, best known for her groundbreaking roles in Disney's original "Mulan" and 1993's "The Joy Luck Club" — the first major studio movie with a predominantly Asian cast — will be recognized at a ceremony. The distinction makes her one of less than two dozen people of Asian descent with a spot on the Walk of Fame, out of more than 2,750 stars. ···

Barbie introduces Anna May Wong doll

by Brahmjot Kaur

Trailblazing actor Anna May Wong is making her debut in the Barbie’s Inspiring Women series.

Wong, who is considered the first Chinese American female actor in Hollywood, will be the first Asian American figure featured in the Mattel collection, which highlights notable women in history such as poet Dr. Maya Angelou, first lady Eleanor Roosevelt and artist Frida Kahlo.

The doll, released Monday, features her iconic blunt bangs, a red-and-gold dress adorned with a dragon, a sheer red cape and gold heels. It also comes with literature that talks about the actor’s accomplishments. ···