On Pushing Yourself Out of Your Comfort Zone
“Great people do things before they’re ready. They do things before they know they can do it. Doing what you’re afraid of, getting out of your comfort zone, taking risks like that — that’s what life is. You might be really good. You might find out something about yourself that’s really special and if you’re not good, who cares? You tried something. Now you know something about yourself.”
— Yes Please
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On Saying ‘Yes, Please’
“Saying ‘yes’ doesn’t mean I don’t know how to say no, and saying ‘please’ doesn’t mean I am waiting for permission.”
— Yes Please
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On Only Laughing When It’s Funny
“Girls, if a boy says something that isn’t funny, you don’t have to laugh.”
— at the 2009 Glamour Women of the Year awards
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On Kindness
“The only way we will survive is by being kind. The only way we can get by in this world is through the help we receive from others. No one can do it alone.”
— Yes Please
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On Magic People (Not Magicians, by the Way)
“It’s very hard to have ideas. It’s very hard to put yourself out there, it’s very hard to be vulnerable, but those people who do that are the dreamers, the thinkers and the creators. They are the magic people of the world.”
— Yes Please
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On Bossy Women (and Why She Loves Them)
“I just love bossy women. I could be around them all day. To me, bossy is not a pejorative term at all. It means somebody’s passionate and engaged and ambitious and doesn’t mind leading.”
— to Glamour in 2011
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On Caring, But Not Letting It Consume You
“You have to care about your work but not about the result. You have to care about how good you are and how good you feel, but not about how good people think you are or how good people think you look.”
— Yes Please
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On Why She Created Smart Girls
“Girls have to fight against a lot of the same stuff we did growing up … peer pressure, exploitation, etc. But what worries me the most is this trend that caring about something isn’t cool. That it’s better to comment on something than to commit to it. That it’s so much cooler to be unmotivated and indifferent. Our culture can get so snarky and ironic sometimes, and we kind of wanted Smart Girls to celebrate the opposite of that.”
— to Huffington Post
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On Getting and Keeping Power
“Power sometimes comes down to knowing the vocabulary, figuring out how the system works and how to work within it. You need to believe that you deserve to be in the room once you get there.”
— to Elle in 2014
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On Experiencing Hard Times
“Emotions are like passing storms, and you have to remind yourself that it won’t rain forever. You just have to sit down and watch it pour outside and then peek your head out when it looks dry.”
— Yes Please
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On Knowing When to Speak
“Try to keep your mind open to possibilities and your mouth closed on matters that you don’t know about. Limit your ‘always’ and your ‘nevers.’ “
— Yes Please
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On Comparison
“The earlier you learn that you should focus on what you have, and not obsess about what you don’t have, the happier you will be.”
— “Ask Amy” on Amy’s Smart Girls
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On Bravery and Kindness
“When you feel scared, hold someone’s hand and look into their eyes. And when you feel brave, do the same thing … And if you add kindness and the ability to change a tire, you almost make up the perfect person.”
— Harvard Commencement Speech, 2011
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On Finding Inspiration from Others
“I want to be around people that do things. I don’t want to be around people anymore that judge or talk about what people do. I want to be around people that dream and support and do things.”
— at Variety‘s Power of Women event in 2013
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On What ‘We Should Be Looking at and Watching These Days’
“It’s okay to not be looking at what everyone else is looking at all the time. To know what you’re ready to see and not see and to be okay with letting some things rest in peace.”
— “Ask Amy” on Amy’s Smart Girls
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On Being Vulnerable (Even If It’s Scary)
“Vulnerability is the key to happiness. Vulnerable people are powerful people. Opening your heart and sharing it means that you’re going to get so much love in your life. It’s the way to true connection and real purpose and meaning in your life.”
— “Ask Amy” on Amy’s Smart Girls
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On Not Caring What Others Think
“Ignore what other people think. Most people aren’t even paying attention to you.”
— Yes Please
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On Being Kind to Yourself
“When you do talk about yourself or to yourself and you have that tape running in your head about yourself, try to picture you are talking to your own daughter or your younger sister, because you would tell your younger sister or your daughter that she is beautiful and you wouldn’t be lying, because she is. And so are you.”
— “Ask Amy” on Amy’s Smart Girls
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