Celebrating Our Favorite ForbesWomen Stories From 2020

Plus: Nine First-Time Female Authors To Read This Holiday Season

Merry Christmas Eve! Whether you’re celebrating tonight or not, I hope this final week of 2020 brings you some time to rest and recharge with your favorite people, places and activities. (Safely and socially distanced, of course.)

While I’ve never actually thought of “My Favorite Things” as a Christmas song, I will borrow the trope for today’s newsletter, which is a look back at some of our most-read and most-loved ForbesWomen stories from the past year. From the news of historic firsts to tales of entrepreneurial resilience—and so much more—below you’ll find a small taste of the stories that informed and inspired us this year. It’s been several months since many were published, but I still enjoy reading them, and hope you do, too!

Cheers!
Maggie

The ForbesWomen Stories That Helped Define 2020

“Let’s show the world what two little Latin girls can do,” Jennifer Lopez wrote on Instagram ahead of her Super Bowl halftime show with Shakira in February. The duo did just that and then some (even if they didn’t get paid for the performance).

In early May, AnnaRose Rubright became the first person with Down syndrome to receive a diploma from Rowan University in Glassboro, New Jersey. "Advocate for yourself,” Rubright advises other students with disabilities.  “And be heard in the real world."

Over the course of spring and summer, we started seeing the fruits of everyone’s lockdown projects (sourdough galore! The first of two surprise Taylor Swift albums!), but then and now, we remind you: it’s okay to not be productive in the middle of a global pandemic!

Among the millennial female founders who came under fire in 2020 for poor management practices at their startups (including The Wing’s Audrey Gelman and Away’s Steph Korey) was 28-year-old Museum of Ice Cream founder Maryellis Bunn. The Under 30 alumna built a business that promised customers happiness, sprinkles and ice cream. But ex-employees say that a darker reality lives under the gauzy filters.

Just 66 days into her tenure as the new CEO of Upwork, the world’s largest, public online freelance marketplace, Hayden Brown was forced to shutter the freelancing platform’s physical offices and comfort many of her 600 newly remote employees. Her wartime decisions have paid off: the platform’s number of freelancer job seekers has increased by 50%, and its stock has surged 400% since the end of March, sending the company’s market cap north of $4 billion.

As we highlight the World's 100 Most Powerful Women in 2020, we also honor the women—Black women like Loveland Foundation founder Rachel Cargle, and activists like Kimberlé Crenshaw—who were instrumental in exposing racial inequity and are some of the most influential drivers for societal change.

Between a real estate investment and financial discipline learned through the “financial independence, retire early” community, Ashleigh Evans left the military with $90,000, no debt, and the ability to take a few months to travel the world. It also empowered her to speak out against mistreatment and sexual harassment she says she withstood while serving the country, because she had no fear of reprisal.

Across Forbes