USA TODAY's Women of the Year Are a Treasure Trove of Inspiration

More than 50 honorees on both the local and national levels were announced today Nationally USA TODAY named the Olympian gold medalist Simone Biles philanthropist Melinda French Gates and Elle magazine editorinchief Nina Garcia as Women of the Year Articles about them appear in a special USA TODAY reportLocally women in every single state as well as the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico were selected They39ll be featured in stories that will run in newspapers across the country which like USA TODAY are part of the Gannett Co Inc family of publicationsquotI read every single story sometimes more than oncequot said Kristen DelGuzzi USA TODAY Managing Editor Opinion in speaking of the honorees quotThere are ones that made me tear up Others made me reach for a pen and think 39That is the most incredible thing what this woman just said I want to remember that39quotIn a sense it39s easy to imagine that Biles might be chosen at any time in recent memory given her legendary and quite extraordinary career as a gymnast But above and beyond that the selection panelists were struck by her strength at the Tokyo Summer Olympics in 2021 quother poise and her grace and her willingness to step out in front to address mental health issues and become an advocatequot as DelGuzzi explained quotShe made it okay and safe to talk about mental health issues She39s such a champion for women for girls especiallyquotAs with Biles the most important reason why USA TODAY selected Gates relates to her impact in the recent past Gates was focused on improving conditions for women and girls during the pandemic through her philanthropic endeavors quotShe walks the walk when it comes to advocacy and doing work on behalf of womenquot DelGuzzi saidNina Garcia39s Women of the Year honor recognizes her actions over the course of her entire career She is not only a top editor at Elle but she39s also been a judge on Project Runway since its first season Along the way she39s been a role model for all women but especially Latina women DelGuzzi said quotShe39s been advocating for them and showing that there is a place for them that they can have a seat at the tableamp8221In going over the entries for the Women of the Year honorees DelGuzzi was struck by certain similarities between many of them despite their different and unique qualities The process involved asking each of them to answer a specific set of questions and the responses brought out the parallelsquotA lot of them cited their moms as a key influence in their livesquot DelGuzzi said quotThey come from very different backgrounds but they had very similar strugglesquot For example many of them had to deal with the impact of people telling them they weren39t good enough to succeedquotSo many of the things these women said could be inspirational messages on posters or on mugsquot she added quotIt39s such a powerful group of women and I39m so proud to be associated with themquotUSA TODAY kicked off its search for the 2022 Women of the Year honorees about a year ago at the time it named Vice President Kamala Harris as its inaugural recipient The effort was inspired by a package of stories that the newspaper ran two years ago titled Women of the Century quotIt coincided with the 100th anniversary of the 19th amendment39s passage giving women in the US the right to votequot DelGuzzi recalled quotThat was such a rich and rewarding experience for us and our audience that we wanted to continue that momentum and that celebration of womenquotTo come up with the ultimate Women of the Year honorees USA TODAY created a panel of experts that included Anthea Hartig Director of the Smithsonian39s National Museum of American History Cid Wilson President and CEO of the Hispanic Association on Corporate Responsibility and Maribel Perez Wadsworth President of News at Gannett Media and Publisher of USA TODAYThe Women of the Year initiative also includes an official charity The organization selected this year is Girls Inc a nonprofit that is focused on inspiring future female leaders to be bold smart and strong It has been awarded a 25000 grant from the Gannett FoundationClick the social buttons to share this content with your friends and colleaguesThe opinions and points of view expressed in this content are exclusively the views of the author andor subjects and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaVillagecomMyersBizNet Inc management or associated writers

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USA TODAY's Women of the Year Are a Treasure Trove of Inspiration

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