women posts

In partnership with Unilever's new Simple facial skincare brand, AOL is excited to launch a nationwide search to find extraordinary women who can become recognized as "Next MAKERS." For the next six weeks, individuals can nominate themselves or women in their own lives who have made a remarkable impact to their local communities, are viewed as role models and inspire people around them to take action.

Six remarkable women from across the country will ultimately be selected to tell their stories in videos that will appear on MAKERS.com and receive a$10,000 grantso they can continue to do great work in their communities. The winning Next MAKERS will fly to New York City to attend an intimate dinner hosted by MAKERS and Simple and film their stories with the award-winning MAKERS filmmaking team.

AOL is proud to continue sharing the authentic, personal and previously untold stories of inspiring women with Next MAKERS. Think you or a peer has what it takes? Visit MAKERS.com/NextMAKERS or Facebook.com/SimpleSkincare to learn more information and nominate someone today!

The newest video stories added to MAKERS.com document the career paths of a traditional journalist turned blogger and entrepreneur and the first officially ordained "Rabba" in Orthodox Judaism.

Lisa Stone, CEO and co-founder of the award-winning social hub BlogHer, left a traditional journalism career at CNN for the Internet in 1997 and hasn't looked back.

In 2002, she was the first Internet journalist awarded a Nieman Fellowship from Harvard University. As Executive Producer and Editor in Chief/VP, Programming, for Women.com, Stone was responsible for developing some of the most successful online communities.

In 2005, she and co-founders Elisa Camahort Page and Jory Des Jardins launched BlogHer, a publishing and social network and annual conference that reaches 37 million women each month. BlogHer.com has been on Forbes' Top 100 Websites for Women in 2010, 2011, and 2012. Stone has also been honored as one of the 100 Most Creative People in Business by Fast Company and as one of The Most Powerful Moms in Media by Working Mother magazine.

Sara Hurwitz is the first officially ordained "Rabba" in Orthodox Judaism. She's the Rabba at the Hebrew Institute of Riverdale, N.Y., and the Dean of Yeshivat Maharat, also in Riverdale. After emigrating with her family from South Africa, she spent her teenage years in Boca Raton, Florida. Her early affinity for religious community life was affirmed when she took a high school vocational test that recommended she join the clergy. At the time, however, Orthodox women were not allowed to serve as rabbis, so she considered the suggestion impossible. Yet Hurwitz's relationship with Judaism continued to grow.

Upon completion of her coursework at Barnard College and then the Drisha Institute, Hurwitz began studying under the Rabbi Avi Weiss of the Hebrew Institute of Riverdale. Over seven years, she received all the training required of a rabbi, learning how to give spiritual guidance, issue legal rulings, and counsel her congregants.

In 2009, Rabbi Weiss officially ordained Hurwitz, giving her the title "Maharat," and later converting it to "Rabba" (a feminized version of rabbi) to more clearly convey her full rabbinic role. While Hurwitz's ordainment caused a fierce backlash from some in the Orthodox community, she maintained her title and her leadership position.

Learn more about Rabbi Weiss by watching this video:


Check out MAKERS.com to learn about more amazing women.

The newest video profiles on MAKERS.com spotlight a boxer and an activist who fights for the rights of disadvantaged children.

Marlen Esparza is the first woman to qualify for the Olympics in the first year that women's boxing was made an official event. Outside of the Olympics, she has won several other competitions, including the bronze medal in the 2006 World Championship and the gold in the 2008 Pan American Games.

Marian Wright Edelman is a renowned activist who established the Children's Defense Fund in 1973. She has been a leading national voice fighting for the rights of disadvantaged children for the last 40 years. She also worked on poverty with Dr. Martin Luther King and formed the Washington Research Project, a public interest law firm and the parent body of the Children's Defense Fund.

Learn more about Marian by watching this video:

.@MAKERSwomen Profiles Two Fighters aol.it/LxBpZL @Marlen112Boxing

- AOL PR (@AOLPR) July 20, 2012

This week's additions to the MAKERS.com showcase of trailblazing women includes an actress who broke ground in her role on Star Trek and a race car driver who was the fourth woman to compete in the Indy 500.

Nichelle Nichols is an American actress and singer whose legendary role as Lieutenant Uhura on the TV series Star Trek was thought by Dr. Martin Luther King to be "the first non-stereotypical role portrayed by a black woman in television history." After the cancellation of Star Trek, Nichols volunteered with NASA in a special project to recruit minority and female personnel.

As an American auto racing driver, Danica Patrick is one of the most famous and recognizable female athletes in the world. She's the only woman to ever win the IndyCar series and holds the highest finish by a woman – third place – at the Indianapolis 500.

Learn more about Danica by watching this video:

Visit MAKERS.com for more inspirational stories!

.@MAKERSwomen Adds Groundbreakers from TV, Auto Racing aol.it/NL6o6q

- AOL PR (@AOLPR) July 11, 2012

New to the MAKERS.com video library this week are the stories of actress Rita Moreno, who talks about breaking into Hollywood and defying stereotypes; Whitney Smith, who advocates for empowering girls, and Marika Shioiri-Clark, an architect who uses design to empower social change.

Rita Moreno is a singer, dancer, and actress, among one of the few actors to have one an Oscar, Grammy, a Tony and an Emmy. She was the first Latina to win an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role as Anita in the 1961 musical film West Side Story. Moreno continues to have a rich and vibrant career. Her latest roles include the Fran Drescher sitcom Happily Divorced and her autobiographical one-women-show Rita Moreno: Life Without Makeup,which debuted on stage in 2011.

Whitney Smith is a teen advocate and the founder of Girls For a Change, an international organization that empowers girls to create social change within their communities and abroad. Smith began her career as a social advocate in college, where she initiated and developed the first LGBT support group in the Pennsylvania state university system. She's active on many boards for high-profile organizations, including Thinking Beyond Borders and the National Girls Institute.

Marika Shioiri-Clark is an architect who uses design to empower global change and battle inequality. Working alongside Partners in Health, she was a lead designer on the Butaro Hospital Project in Rwanda, where she lived on-site in 2008 developing designs and overseeing construction. Shioiri-Clark has been rewarded amply for her accomplishments. She was an Ideas Scholar at the Aspen Institute in 2009, a summer fellow at Public Architecture in 2007, and received a U.S. National Commission for UNESCO Traveling Fellowship in 2008.

Learn more about Marika by watching this video: