POPSUGAR rounded out its weekend-long Play/Ground festival Sunday by bringing together successful female entrepreneurs, CEO’s, actresses, models, and authors to create an environment which enriched and educated all the attendees.
Day two of Play/Ground was undoubtedly centered on feminism and self-help. In addition to the workout classes hosted by Wonderland yoga and celebrity trainers Kayla Itsines and Simone De La Rue, Play/Ground featured panels from stars like actress and comedian Tiffany Haddish, CEO and President of Huda Beauty, Huda and Mona Kattan, motivational speaker Gabby Bernstein and leading actresses from some of today’s top movies and tv series.
CEO of Huda Beauty, Huda Kattan and her sister, the President of Huda Beauty, Mona Kattan spoke on a panel titled “Beauty’s Biggest Sister Act” about building their company in the social media age. The pair recalled how they deal with criticism and haters online and teased their new Facebook Watch show, which aired June 12th.
CEO and Cofounder of Ellevest Sallie Krawcheck talked on the “Save Yourself” panel, highlighting the numerous money gaps between men and women.
“Guys have more money than we do, guys have a lot more money than we do,” said Krawcheck. “Money is power, money is independence, money is freedom. We retire with two-thirds the money of men, we are 80% more likely to be impoverished during retirement than men. The numbers are present, but we can change them.”
Krawcheck urged the women in the audience to take a stand for themselves and their money–asking for raises when due, handling their own finances as opposed to letting their spouses handle them, setting aside money for retirement, and starting to invest.
(Photo by Monica Schipper/Getty Images for POPSUGAR Play/Ground)
The “Screen Queens” panel featured some of today’s biggest actresses talking about what it’s like to play comic book characters in real life and included Ashleigh Murray and Vanessa Morgan from “Riverdale”, Candice Patton from “The Flash” and Caity Lotz from “Legends of Tomorrow”
Ashleigh Murray and Vanessa Morgan talked openly about being black women playing characters that were originally white in their respective comics.
“Iris West was originally white in the comic books, and comic book fans are very opinionated,” said Morgan about her character on “The Flash.” “So it was very scary stepping into that role on the show. What’s great though is that over time people have embraced me and embraced this character. Years to come people will remember Iris West as being African American.”
Murray and Lotz also talked extensively about “Shethority,” a feminist website and creative space backed by the DC actresses.
“The great thing about it is we’re really expanding beyond our DC tv shows, we are gonna be launching a website soon” said Caity Lotz. “For us, this whole thing is about community, it’s about empowerment and it’s not us and ours on a platform for us to speak to you, it’s a platform for us all to speak together. The main format of this website is article based, and we would love for each of you guys to write an article.”
Actress Vanessa Morgan poses with a guest on day 2 of POPSUGAR Play/Ground (Photo by Monica Schipper/Getty Images for POPSUGAR Play/Ground)
The last talk and obvious highlight of the day was motivational speaker Gabby Bernstein’s talk entitled “The Universe Has Your Back.” The main stage filled with women of all ages listening to Bernstein’s spiritual advice.
“We need to begin to open up to think new thoughts,” said Bernstein. “The way that we have to shift the energy behind the beliefs is to think them differently.”
Bernstein’s talk focused on becoming happy by removing negative thoughts and energy from your life. She said that being appreciative of the things we do have and always practicing gratitude are two ways to bring positive energy to your life and therefore attract more positive energy into it.
(Photo by Brian Ach/Getty Images for POPSUGAR Play/Ground)
After a day full of motivation, inspiration, and education, POPSUGAR Play/Ground day two ended with a live performance from pop/electronic duo AlunaGeorge.