Two things keep YPO member Jes Wolfe up at night. The first is how to keep her media company thriving in an industry that is constantly influx — not an uncommon concern for a CEO. The second thing feels a bit more urgent:
“The state of girlhood has never been so dire as it is today,” she says. “It just makes me want to do more and faster.”
There are alarming statistics informing Wolfe’s concerns. Since 2017, the overall rate of girls’ confidence has declined to 55% from 68%. The biggest drop came from fifth and sixth graders. Fifty-five percent of fifth and sixth graders said that they were unsure if they were smart enough to pursue their dream career; 79% of girls say they’re under so much pressure that they are going to explode; and eight out of 10 girls are so concerned with the way they look that they opt out of important activities such as sports, dances or doctor’s appointments.
“It breaks my heart, and every day it just makes me think about what more can we do, and how much bigger can we do it,” she says.
Wolfe is in a unique position to directly combat this data, as CEO of Rebel Girls, a global, multi-platform girl empowerment brand dedicated to helping raise the most inspired and confident generation of girls through content, experiences, products and community. Co-founded by Elena Favilli and Francesca Cavallo and originating from an international best-selling children’s book, “Goodnight Stories for Rebel Girls,” Rebel Girls amplifies stories of real-life, extraordinary women throughout history all around the world.
Some of the extraordinary women you already know — Simone Biles, Ruth Bader Ginsberg, Marie Curie, Frida Kahlo — and some you might not, but should: chef Reyna Duong, astronauts Jeanette Epps and Noora Al Matrooshi, and Irish chieftain and seafarer Grace O’Malley, to name just a few.
So far, they have told the stories of more than 2,000 women, with 60% of them being Black, Indigenous and women of color.
“We try to be as intentional as possible so that every girl can see at least one, if not dozens of role models who look like her and feel authentic to her experience,” says Wolfe. “There’s so many layers to diversity and representation, so we’ll continue to push the envelope because it’s fundamental to what we do and who we are.”
Building, learning, leading
A small-town Oregon girl who grew up on a farm and wanted to see and be a part of the world, Wolfe cites Olympic swimmers Summer Sanders and Janet Evans as her childhood heroes. The record-breaking duo motivated Wolfe — a passionate swimmer herself — to get in the pool, work hard and aspire for greatness. But she counts the most influential person in her life as her grandfather, who served in the U.S. Navy during World War II, was a naval architect, designer, inventor, and late in life earned his law degree.
“He was constantly reinventing himself and getting more education and building new businesses,” Wolfe says. “His attitude toward life and willingness to take risks has been a North Star for me.”
— Jes Wolfe, CEO of Rebel Girls share
After college she spent 16 years living on five continents and working in 25 countries to learn as much as she could. She worked in investment banking, as a consultant, and even at the World Bank before she decided to flex her entrepreneur muscles, building Hoodline, a technology media company that eventually sold to Nextdoor. She also became an angel investor, focusing on women-led companies and funds.
“I view that first decade of my career as my learning mode; how many different experiences could I have?” she says. “And then the second decade of my career has been about building businesses, cultures, and creating impact; that’s really where my heart and soul truly lie.”
By the time she met Favilli in 2019, Rebel Girls had self-published two successful books. Wolfe was ready for a new challenge, recognized the consumer demand for what they were creating, and felt she had the skills and experience to help scale the company. She was totally sold on the ethos.
“You can’t beat the mission: to help raise the most inspired and confident generation of girls,” she says. “There are few ways I could spend my time that would have as much of an impact as Rebel Girls.” She joined the company as a board member in 2019 and became CEO in April 2020.
Building a Rebel Girl army
Not only did Rebel Girl’s rallying cry attract Wolfe, but it also attracted a slew of impressive investors first in the 2020 seed round and then again in the 2023 series A. Formidable women such as Asma Ishaq, Deborah Mei, Gina DÍez Barroso, Joan Jett, Joelle Kayden, Melissa Kushner, and Sukhinder Singh Cassidy participated alongside Owl Ventures, who led the seed round, and Penguin Random House, which came on as a strategic lead for their series A.
“Raising capital is never easy,” she says, citing current interest rates as a barrier to capital for everyone, but especially for women, who only receive 2% of venture funding. “But this is something that the world wanted, and that parents and girls were responding to, and we are proud to have attracted values-aligned investors.”
The capital raised was part of Rebel Girls’ expansion journey toward bigger initiatives and more distribution and content offerings. And as they have expanded, so has the number of women — more than 600 creatives from 50 countries — with whom Wolfe entrusts to tell the Rebel Girl stories as well as hundreds of women and girls whose stories they have told who have become part of the Rebel Girls coalition.
“The community we’ve built has been phenomenal and beyond my wildest dreams in terms of women leaders, entrepreneurs, activists, creators and innovators,” she says. “Everyone wants to inspire and build and be a part of something. And that’s been truly motivational.”
Building A Rebel Girl universe
To date, Rebel Girls has sold more than 10 million books in 50 languages and 110 countries. But not every girl is curling up with a physical book. So Wolfe and her team have been nimble with their strategy, including launching audio stories with nearly 50 million listens via podcast, app, YouTube and in-flight entertainment and devices. Wolfe has further expanded the Rebel Girl-verse with partnerships including those with Nike and Google, and in the metaverse with House of Blueberry on Roblox and Minecraft via Stride, an educational company.
“We want to be everywhere girls are,” says Wolfe, who is cognizant of how social media and screen time can impact young girls. “And if that’s in the digital world, we’ll be a part of that as well. But we do it in a safe way that parents can trust and will inspire confidence building and encourage girls to do things in real life in their community.”
— Jes Wolfe share
Wolfe has also ushered in Rebel Girls’ “Growing Up Powerful” franchise that teaches girls ages 8-12 important life skills from money management to advice on their changing bodies. In summer 2024, Rebel Girls will release their first fiction series.
The idea grew out of Wolfe’s frustration with entertainment properties that allowed boy protagonists to use their strength and mental prowess to save the day from external threats while girl protagonists were relegated to facing challenges of romance or ‘mean girls,’ or relying on magic rather than their own virtues to save the day. She envisions the series leading to TV series, movies and even theater opportunities.
“It’s our first time world-building, character-building, imagining new story lines, and creating a longer and more encompassing narrative,” says Wolfe. “I want to show the world that you can create a girl-driven fictional series that showcases positive friendships, interpersonal communication and dynamics; that you can build something wonderful that doesn’t rely on horrible tropes.”
Building a legacy
Each year, Rebel Girls sends a survey to their customers to measure their impact. In 2023, 94% of parent respondents said Rebel Girls has inspired their daughters, with 86% saying that their girls’ confidence increased because of the company.
The impact of those numbers isn’t lost on Wolfe, especially as Rebel Girls has reached more than 33 million girls with their content (Wolfe’s goal is to hit 100 million by 2030.) Because behind each one is a young girl finding confidence, inspiration, and for some, rules by which one should live.
She recounts a story from one of the many notes she receives from parents reaching out to share Rebel Girl praise where two sisters, ages 7 and 5, were doing a drawing activity at home. The younger sister was struggling and got frustrated enough to throw her papers in the air when her older sister quickly brought her back from the edge of defeat with an impassioned reminder: “You can’t give up – it’s against Rebel Girls law!”
For Wolfe, the story drives home Rebel Girls’ position as leaders in an important movement, especially for generation alpha girls, and that the work they do can make a true difference.
“I want these girls to self-identify as Rebel Girls,” she says. “To not just be inspired, but truly internalize the ethos that they, too, can be the stars of their own story, the heroes of tomorrow, and they are the ones who are going to change the world.”
