Our Story
How It All Began
Career Girls got its start in 1996 with a simple idea: Give young girls useful methods for attaining their professional dreams and goals. At the time, Linda Calhoun, founder and CEO of Career Girls, was working as a database consultant for international development projects supported by USAID and the World Bank. She found her work to be rewarding on many levels, and she wanted girls coming up behind her to know about exciting careers they could pursue in tech and beyond.
Linda decided the best way to accomplish this goal was to talk with women who had achieved their career ambitions, discuss the journey they took to become successful in their fields, and then provide girls with the educational materials they needed to follow those career paths.
By using a video-based format, Career Girls brings these women directly to girls wherever they are, increasing access to role models working as astronauts, sports anchors, engineers, animators, teachers, travel agents, musicians, physicians, marine biologists, computer systems analysts, authors, attorneys, and more.
Since its launch, the Career Girls team has interviewed more than 800 accomplished women role models from around the world and in cities throughout the United States, including Houston, Chicago, Philadelphia, Washington, D.C., St. Louis, Boston, New York, Denver, Detroit, Atlanta, San Diego, Los Angeles, Kigali, Tokyo, Addis Ababa, and their home base of San Francisco. Career Girls now offers the largest online collection of career guidance videos focusing exclusively on diverse and accomplished women — over half of whom are in STEM fields.
Research supports the need for girls to have women role models who can help them see what’s possible and realize their potential. Career Girls is committed to helping to fill this need for all girls through its girl-centric career exploration tool. And as we quickly found out, the need for Career Girls is there. Today, Career Girls has expanded its reach to more than 230 countries, with more than 50 million website sessions.
Through the Career Girls video-based platform, girls are discovering their own path to empowerment with the knowledgeable guidance of accomplished role models who share the story of their career and the educational path they took to get there. These role models speak directly to girls about considering different careers, developing skills, overcoming obstacles, and staying motivated. Most important of all, they are closing the Imagination Gap.
Today, Career Girls videos are seen around the world on multiple platforms, including YouTube, Vimeo, TES Global and Share My Lesson. Career Girls collaborates with many organizations, including Global Fund for Women Virtual exhibition, Young Women in Bio, Africa Code Week, 2017 G8, El Camino College, Spelman College, NASA, YouTube Space LA, YouTube, Georgia Tech, MIT, Girls Academic Leadership Academy, Take our Daughters, and Sons to Work Foundation and the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History in Detroit, which features Career Girls in its interactive STEM exhibition.
In 2018, Career Girls initiated a pilot program with a local San Francisco elementary school, entitled Career Girls Club©. Career Girls Club is an in-school program featuring short role model videos, paired with discussion-based curriculum and related activities which are explored in 20 weekly session topics or themes. The first Club was so successful that we were asked to implement two Clubs in 2019 and 2020.
After the pandemic, we re-started the Clubs in 2022 and have continued to grow the program nationwide from four schools in 2023/2024 to 20 Clubs in 2024/2025.
Our progress is a result of a collective effort – hundreds of inspiring volunteer role models, a dedicated board and talented team, and supportive educators and parents – all working together to pay it forward to the next generation.
When I was a girl, I asked about taking calculus and I was told “Don’t worry, you don’t need it”. That set me back about ten years. – Linda Calhoun at age 13
