Ale Foresto, our newest Ambassador
At She’s the First, we have a special ask of anyone who applies to join our leadership team. Instead of sending a boring cover letter, we ask you to write a letter to your 10-year-old self. Why? Because it’s important to tap into what it means to be a girl and realize how, thanks to your education, you’re way happier and fulfilled now than you ever dreamed possible at age 10.
We are so proud to introduce our newest Ambassador for She’s the First, Ale Foresto. You may remember we met Ale’s mom when we visited Peru this summer, because she was born and educated in Lima! Ale then graduated from Hofstra University and landed a dream job as an editor at O, the Oprah Magazine. As an Ambassador, she will network to grow the She’s the First brand and support system in NYC and beyond. Please join us in the blog comments in welcoming Ale to the team!
Dear 10-year-old Ale,
When was the last time you did something for the first time? Well, if I remember correctly, you just choreographed your first Spice Girls routine for your first ever dance competition at school. You recently went to your first boy-girl party. And last year you read your first real “grown up” book (meaning no character was named Mary-Kate or Ashley).
Great, we are up to a good start. But, let me tell you what firsts you’ve taken on in the past 13 years:
Even though you cried when you found out your dad is being transferred to Chile at the end of this year, when you turn 17 you’ll willingly decide to move over 3,000 miles away from Lima to live in New York. Yes, you’ll actually do that! You’ll be the first in your family to get a full-tuition Fulbright Scholarship; you’ll pack your entire room and move to Hofstra University all by yourself. Pretty impressive, huh?
Four years later, you’ll be the first to graduate college before turning 21, and to graduate with a double major in Mass Media and Political Science. That journalism class you just took this year actually changed your life! You won’t be a lawyer; you’ll be a journalist.
And guess what? It gets better. You’ll be the first in your family to live in Manhattan and have a job at a national magazine with a circulation of millions. You’ll love, live and breathe beauty. You’ll get to play with makeup and write about it. You’ll get to meet celebrities and you won’t like some of them (hate to break it to you, but Justin Timberlake is not that cool in person). You’ll be the first to meet Oprah Winfrey! Yes, that Oprah Winfrey! And you’ll actually work for her.
And a few years later, you’ll read the first line of this letter in the She’s the First blog and start thinking about how amazingly lucky you’ve been your entire life. Yes, you’ve had hard times, but honestly, what do you have to complain about? You might think moving to Chile for two years and leaving your friends is the end of the world. You might think your dad not letting you get a new dog is so annoying. You might think the fact that you’ve never been to Disney World is so not fair (you’ll go next year and then again with your boyfriend in 2006; the boyfriend that will become your husband 2 years later!) But you’ll learn than none of these things matter at all! You’ll learn you have a great, privileged life and want to do something to help those who don’t. So do me a favor and don’t sweat the small things. You’ll grow up to be a compassionate, loving, smart, talented person and that’s all that really matters. Make mistakes and learn from them!
Love,
AleP.S. Could you do me another favor? Don’t cut your hair really short when you turn 13. It’ll look bad…believe me.
