Here's the astonishingly interesting line-up (in alphabetical order by first name), of amazing women who rocked the stage at TED2012. (There may have been one or two more due to last-minute program changes...)
When they took the TED stage, these 17 women became role models for millions of girls and young women who aspire to one day take the stage and make their voices heard around the world.
(But 17 is not nearly enough. We need more women on stages everywhere!)
Angie Miller is the 2011 New Hampshire Teacher of the Year. She has spent the past year traveling the nation, speaking and collaborating with K-12 teachers and other educational stakeholders.
Miller has been immersed in middle school education for 11 years, which has deeply affected her spelling and humor. In a typical classroom that Miller runs, students develop their voices to make change.
Awele Makeba is a storyteller, teacher, actor, guest lecturer, and more.
Her bio on the TED 2012 Speakers A-Z list says she is:
"a truth teller, an artist for social change: She researches, writes and performs hidden African American history, folklore, and personal tales. Her audiences grapple with the meaning of their own lives as they make meaning of past lives."
Kate Messner is an award-winning author whose books for kids have been New York Times Notable, Junior Library Guild, IndieBound, and Bank Street College of Education Best Books selections.
She believes in nature, art, magic, lake monsters, science, and the power of literacy to change the world. She writes books for people who also believe in those things.
Messner's book The Brilliant Fall of Gianna Z. was the winner of the 2010 E.B. White Read Aloud Award for Older Readers.
Speaking at a London girls' school in 2009, Michelle Obama makes a passionate, personal case for each student to take education seriously.
It is this new, brilliant generation, she says, that will close the gap between the world as it is and the world as it should be.
Michelle Obama's life as First Lady of the United States is informed by her early life, growing up as the daughter of a pump operator for the Chicago water department.