Mentoring: Zoe Damacela at TEDxMidwest

21 year old Zoe Damacela is an entrepreneur and fashion designer whom at a very early age and from very humble beginnings began a career in fashion that has taken her around the world and placed her in the company of some extraordinary people. Damacela eloquently espouses her first-hand view of the importance of mentorship for young entrepreneurs.

Zoe Damacela is proof that resourcefulness, persistence, talent and lots of hard work are an unbeatable combination. For the last dozen years, Zoe, a triple-major at Northwestern (history, astronomy and Italian), has been a serial entrepreneur. Starting at age 8 with hand-made greeting cards to raise money for a scooter, Zoe is now the CEO of a successful fashion line (Zoe Damacela Apparel), counts Tyra Banks among her advisors and, as the winner of Seventeen magazine's "Pretty Amazing" contest, has a magazine cover to credit.

In the spirit of ideas worth spreading, TEDx is a program of local, self-organized events that bring people together to share a TED-like experience. At a TEDx event, TEDTalks video and live speakers combine to spark deep discussion and connection in a small group. These local, self-organized events are branded TEDx, where x = independently organized TED event. The TED Conference provides general guidance for the TEDx program, but individual TEDx events are self-organized.* (*Subject to certain rules and regulations)