Girl Power at Glamour’s Women Of The Year Awards: Victoria Beckham, Reese Witherspoon, Caitlyn Jenner & More
Have you ever sat in a room so electrified by empowerment that your feet start tapping, your heart starts racing, and your mind is moving in a million different directions? Well I have, and let me tell you, it’s a rush. On Monday night at Carnegie Hall in New York City, Reese Witherspoon, Caitlyn Jenner, Victoria Beckham, Misty Copeland, women impacted by the Charleston shooting, Elizabeth Holmes, Cecile Richards, and the U.S. Women’s National Soccer Team were honored as Glamour Women of the Year.
Sure, it seems like every other week there’s another women’s magazine handing out an award to some celebrities with their famous friends in the audience at a glitzy event. But this one was different. Instead of Hollywood’s elite coming together to praise each other’s works of art — ugh, ugh, ugh, a thousand ughs — this one took the time to celebrate women who have done extraordinary things from ordinary beginnings, and spoke to the people on how — and why — the could (and should) do the same.
Look at Elizabeth Holmes as an example. Her dream as a child was to invent something that would change the world and at 19, she did just that. Now, a little more than a decade later, she has her name on hundreds of patents, has created a company worth billions, and changed millions of lives through science. “Do everything you can to be the best in science, and math, and engineering,” she told the young audience in the nosebleed section, consisting of students and members of Girls, Inc., The Girl Project, and the Boys & Girls Club. “If you want to be an artist, or an astronaut, or an athlete, or a scientist, or a doctor, those skills, that language will help you to be the best and go all into it and break the stereotype that we can’t be the best in these fields.”
But it wasn’t just the teenagers, so excited to see Selena Gomez that their screams might’ve bursted some eardrums, who were dished out inspiring advice. Reese Witherspoon, an actress known for her roles in Election, Walk the Line, and Legally Blonde, has, in the past few years, become a mega-producer in the film industry, focusing strictly on projects with interesting and positive roles for women, not those that cast them in the archetypical submissive role to a man. “Films with women at the center are not a public service project, they are a big time, body-mind enhancing, money-making commodity.” Victoria Beckham, the former Spice Girl and current designer, takes the same approach and applies it through her career. “It started with the Spice Girls and girl power and I want to send that same message to women through my collections,” she said. “I want to support, empower, and really make women feel like the best versions of themselves.”
It’s possible that Beckham, whose 16-year-old son Brooklyn presented her with her award (again, cue the shrieks), might have a new client in Caitlyn Jenner, who happens to have recently found her authentic self. “For years and years, I never felt like I fit in anywhere. I always felt as an outsider. I never felt good on the male side and I wasn’t obviously on the female side. I was kind of stuck in the middle, but all of a sudden, after making this decision and coming out, it was by far the best thing I ever did, because for so many years, I lost my enthusiasm for life,” the 66-yar-old, who was wearing a custom Jeremy Scott gown in royal blue with an off-the-shoulder silhouette. “Now, actually, I like going out and I like being myself.”
So here’s my personal advice: watch these women’s speeches (click here to view them all), read some choice quotes throughout this slideshow (be sure to have your tissues and Twitter at the ready!), and be inspired. It’s a pretty great feeling, trust me.
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