Whether you were browsing for some advice, a quick laugh or both, we’ve all fallen into the inevitable YouTube rabbit hole of TED Talks. As we collectively hit our quarter-life crisis, dealing with the pressures of being a woman and a college student, here are 10 TED Talks made by fellow women to inspire you:
- “Get Comfortable With Being Uncomfortable”
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We can’t just talk about change and wait for someone to initiate it for us–we need to be the ones who go out and make it happen. Luvvie Ajayi stresses the importance of taking the first step, because we can’t afford to be silent in a society that counts on our complacency. Being a leader doesn’t mean being fearless, but rather pushing through anyway and doing what needs to be done.
- “If I Should Have a Daughter…”
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Sarah Kay is one of the most well-known spoken word poets today, and for good reason. She details her journey from being the only teenager at the Bowery Poetry Club in New York City to traveling the world, teaching kids how to write and instilling her love of spoken word into the next generation. Trust me, she’ll give you chills.
- “For the Love of Fangirls”
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While poking fun at stan culture and sharing her fascination with fangirls, Yve Blake considers the internally misogynistic practice of dismissing passionate female fans as “psycho” or “hysterical” when male enthusiasm for other subjects is perfectly allowed. Toward the end of her talk, she poses the question, “[Are fangirls actually] crazy? Or is our definition of reasonable based on what it is acceptable for men to do?”
- “Why You Need to Be a Bitch”
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In a world where the odds are already stacked against women, we don’t need to be making it harder for each other. Tabatha Coffey analyzes the often thoughtless ways we discredit or renounce other women, like calling them “bitches” as a way to mask our own jealousy or insecurities. To change the narrative, she reinvents the term as an empowering one and urges us to lift one another up.
- “Stop Searching For Your Passion”
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Terri Trespicio knows that the question “What is your passion?” is typically harmless, but it can induce panic in people as they scramble to think of an interesting answer. Truth is, a lot of us don’t know what we’re passionate about, and that’s okay. Only when we stop living life with tunnel vision, searching for a singular purpose to give our lives meaning, will it be the most fulfilling.
- “How Do You Define Yourself?”
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Lizzie Velasquez is an anti-bullying motivational speaker with Marfanoid-progeroid-lipodystrophy syndrome, a disease that prevents her from gaining any weight. Despite the ridicule and hate she receives, she doesn’t let other people define who she is and uses their negativity as motivation, inspiring others to do the same.
- “Success, Failure, and the Drive to Keep Creating”
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How do we bounce back from failure? Even more, how do we bounce back from success? Elizabeth Gilbert reminds us to stay grounded in what we love–for her, that’s writing, but for us it could be anything–so that when life pulls us from one extreme to another, we remember who we are.
- “How to Make Stress Your Friend”
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We’ve all heard that stress can negatively affect your health, but it turns out that believing stress can negatively affect your health has negative effects of its own. Kelly McGonigal explains the physiological science behind stress and how our perceptions of it actually influence the way our bodies respond to it. While stress is never fun, especially as college students, we can change the way we think about it so it won’t detrimentally impact our health in the long run.
- “10 Ways to Have a Better Conversation”
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Just like any other skill, making good conversation takes practice. Celeste Handlee walks us through ten things we can do to be better communicators and listeners, not just for the sake of social expectation, but in order to forge deeper connections with others.
- “A Guide to Believing in Yourself (But For Real This Time)”
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We all have a choice in this world: do we step out of our comfort zone and take the shot, or do we stay with what we’re familiar with? Showrunner and actress Catherine Reitman describes a time she went for it, despite several instances of rejection and disappointment, which eventually resulted in her successful TV series Workin’ Moms. With a little faith and hard work, we may just surprise ourselves.
In 20 minutes or less, these TED Talks individually tackle an integral part of the human experience. From feminism to leadership to creativity to self-confidence, there is so much to learn from strong women, not just from TED, but all around us. Wherever you get your inspiration from, I hope it encourages you to nurture your self-growth and seize your moment.