Key Takeaways:

- Être means "To Be" in French, and the goal of this movement is to help today's girls figure out who they want to be.

- By bringing girls directly into companies to meet strong female leaders face to face, they meet role models at an early - and crucial - age.

- Middle school is not too early to talk with girls about big topics like financial confidence, female mentorship, philanthropy and entrepreneurship. In fact, it's exactly the right time.

- Illana wants "Every girl to raise her hand instead of lowering her standards.”

When developing the future female leaders of tomorrow, it’s so important for them to be aware of the female leaders that are impacting the world right now. Today’s Finding Brave guest was inspired by her own daughter to put female role models in front of girls at an early age, and as she shares, we all have a part to play in this critical movement.

According to reports, girls’ confidence and self-esteem peaks around age 9, and falls from there. We see it all the time, girls suddenly feel self-conscious of their appearance as their bodies change, they see women in the media and feel they need to wear makeup to get that airbrushed look, they hear gossip at sleepovers and feel they need to be the best at everything to stand out from the crowd and avoid being picked on. What can we do to help foster confidence in girls as they go through the difficult stages of middle school and high school? Here to talk us through it is Illana Raia: lawyer, lecturer, and CEO and Founder of Etre Girls, a mentorship platform for young girls.

The organization Être Girls bolsters middle school aged girls by finding female mentors at global brands to talk to the girls about how to “Be Smart, Be Wise, Be Innovative.” The group has a new book entitled, Être: Girls, Who Do You Want to Be? It features two Jacksonville girls involved in the movement and is already an Amazon best seller. We spoke about, “Être,” which means “to be,” with founder Illana Raia.

Meet Illana Raia, lawyer, lecturer and founder of ‘Être’ – a site and movement providing resources to girls helping to build their confidence and futures.