DiversifyHER
DiversifyHER is a Gen Z-led podcast where I, Raven Heyward, engage with leaders to discuss the importance of representation. My mission is to inspire young girls, create meaningful mentorship opportunities, and explore ways to empower and uplift individuals in various industries and leadership roles.
DiversifyHER
EP 46: The Girl Boss Effect: Creating Community and Opportunity at UNC with Lauryn Taylor
Listen as Raven Heyward, founder and host of DiversifyHER, converses with Lauryn Taylor. She is a senior at UNC-Chapel Hill, double-majoring in Media & Journalism and Public Policy. She serves as the Class of 2026 Chief Marshal and is the founder of Girl Boss Gatherings, a campus community empowering female college students through career events, social experiences, and networking opportunities. During her time at Carolina, Lauryn studied abroad in London and gained professional experience interning at both a bank and an advertising agency. On campus, she’s represented brands like Grammarly, Bearpaw, and Uber Eats as a student ambassador, and she currently works with the Carolina Alumni Association to strengthen the post-grad experience while also hosting office hours for Hussman students seeking career advice.
Connect with Lauryn:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lauryntaylor/
Hello everyone and welcome back to Diversify Her Podcast. I'm your host, raven Hayward, and today I'm excited to have Lauren Taylor-Whitney. She is a senior at UNC Chapel Hill, double majoring in media and journalism and public policy, is the founder of Girl Boss Gatherings, a campus community empowering female college students through career events, social experiences and networking opportunities. During her time at Carolina, lauren studied abroad in London and gained professional experience, interning at both a bank and an advertising agency On campus. She's represented brands like Grammarly Bear, paw and Uber Eats as a student ambassador and she currently works with the Carolina Alumni Association to strengthen the post-grad experience, while also hosting office hours for husband students seeking career advice. Thank you so much for being here with me today, lauren. How are you doing?
Speaker 2:I'm doing good. Thank you for having me, Of course.
Speaker 1:I'm super excited to have you on the show today. So I want to start with some of your early inspirations. When you first started at UNC, you jumped right into leadership and involvement. So what motivated you to be so intentional about shaping your Carolina experience from the very beginning?
Speaker 2:Be so intentional about shaping your Carolina experience from the very beginning. Yeah, so I think throughout high school I had like a lot of really good mentors who talked about like the importance of college experience as like a booster for like the rest of your life. They said like this is kind of like an incubated period of four years where you can hyper fixate on just like your social life, your social network, what you're doing, what you wish to do, and that period is kind of a gift because after your four years of college, like other things start to get in the way Like you have bills, you may have kids, you have a spouse, like it's just different. You don't get that same hyperfixation period. And so when they really talked about that, they really encouraged me to kind of map out what my one end goals were, or some different versions that I would like to leave college as, and then like what the different steps were to get to those end goals. So for me, coming into undergrad I was actually like pre-med, so like my whole end goal was actually medicine, which is very different than like what I think my end goal is now. But a lot of like my whole end goal was actually medicine, which is very different than like what I think my end goal is now, but a lot of like my mentors really had me like visually draw out like the different steps I needed. So obviously there was obvious stuff like certain classes and like MCATs, but then there was also like curating your other side, like whether that was your extracurricular involvement, your community service, like at the time, like my clinical hours, research and just starting to like draw out the life you like desired for yourself and for me.
Speaker 2:I think like that, like having like a set time to really like think and focus on what I really wanted, helped me gain like a lot of clarity and know how to move like with each semester.
Speaker 2:So like I feel like my semester, freshman year fall, was really focused on like building like my social network.
Speaker 2:So that was more like meeting different people, going to all like the first year Honors, carolina scholarship events, making sure I was connecting with like my professors and actually getting to know all six of them, just because that was going to be like my base network. Going to like I was doing stuff with like the research community and like going out to the events there to meet with PIs in different labs, and that was really my whole goal, like fall semester was not really to get a leadership position or get super involved per se, but to like see everything out there. And then my mentors kind of describe it as like a pyramid. Like your first year is like the bottom of the pyramid and as you like go up the years, like you get more focused and you get higher up. So like that's when you start, you know going for those higher exec positions you go to like advisory boards, you're representing your school and so that's kind of how I treated my four years.
Speaker 1:I think that that period example is a really good sort of analogy of what I believe your four years have actually been, and even the same. Here I'm thinking back. I actually remember meeting you before we even got to Carolina. When what was it? You before we even got to Carolina, when? What was it? It was like the superintendent, the board, um, that was within Wake County, and we were like student leaders at our high school, and during this time it was still on zoom, but I even remember you having a lot of leadership positions in high school. So would you say that you kind of had that same sort of period or pyramid mindset whenever you were still in high school or in middle school, like before even getting to Carolina?
Speaker 2:Yeah, definitely in high school I feel like I had those goals. I was like a Girl Scout, for, like I'm a lifelong Girl Scout, so I feel like they've also always encouraged like community service. So always encourage like community service. Um so like pretty much every level, like elementary school, middle school, high school and girl scouts you have the option to complete like a community service project and even in elementary school it was like a 40 hour project, so pretty significant for like how old you are. And then in high school I think it was 80 hours. Middle school was 60 hours um to like qualify to have completed the project. So, and the way they structure, it was 80 hours. Middle school was 60 hours to like qualify to have completed the project. So in the way they structure it was also like kind of pyramid like. So like in your early years of elementary schools you were doing like training and earning badges and going to like programming about like community service, leadership and other like skills, and then, as you like, move through to like the later years of elementary school, like fourth and fifth grade. That's when you were like planning your project, implementing it, and they did the same thing for like middle and high school. So I feel like I've always been probably exposed to that whole like pyramid and growth mindset.
Speaker 2:But then, like in high school, I feel like I started to probably lock in a little bit more because I just had there was a clear like next step, like it's different with like elementary school you graduate your middle school is like pre-picked out Middle school you graduate your high school is pre-picked out.
Speaker 2:High school is like your leaving high school is your first time to make a decision of your own and I knew like I wanted to take a lot of ownership of that. I wanted to have a lot of options. I wanted to have a lot of different program options. So as I started to move up in high school, particularly my sophomore junior year, that's when I started to do things like the Superintendent Leadership Council. That's when I started to be on the advisory board for our athletics department. I also did some other projects with the Wake County Superintendent, with DEI and going to the board meetings and presenting. And that's when I started to like, when I reached like my junior senior year, really be at the top of my pyramid in terms of involvement, leadership and then starting to help like the next round of kids slash, next generation of leaders like develop themselves and like slowly take over different things. I had started.
Speaker 1:I did not know that you were a lifelong girl Scout. That is so cool. That's an interesting, fun fact about you. But I completely agree with everything that you said and I wholeheartedly agree. So now I want to talk about you founding the Girl Boss Gatherings. So I know that one of your biggest initiatives has been creating that, co-creating that, along with Nora and Anisa, who just graduated class of 2025. And I want to know, can you just walk us through the vision behind starting it and how you've seen an impact with the different women that are on campus, with the different women that are on campus?
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 2:So I think my whole thing with like founding things is I like to like confirm that there is like an actual need or like space for it. And when I kind of like looked around at like the clubs slash, like social communities around UNC, I was like a lot of orgs here which I think these all serve their purpose, but like a lot of the organizations here are school-based. So it's like women in business, women in econ, women in STEM, future women in medicine and all of those orgs have their purpose and are great, but at least for me, like Hussman and Public Policy, they have some programming like that, but they weren't super strong or like as big of like a social environment as I would want it to be and like sometimes it was reversed it wasn't as big of like a networking environment that I'd want it to be. So I noticed that gap and I also noticed like I already take classes with people in public policy, with people in Hussman. I don't really I would want to diversify in terms of like a social setting. I don't want to just be around them. So it's like okay, that's kind of a gap.
Speaker 2:Obviously there's other organizations that like exist for women too, but like some of them I know like a lot of even like clubs here like they have a really high membership fee or like the events can sometimes cost money or there's just like other barriers to entry that may prohibit someone from like just really joining some of those organizations. And so I kind of thought about that, which is why, like we really wanted to opt to make our organization like none of our events cost, just because in case someone like felt really uncomfortable or that was like something that had previously been turn them away from different organizations. We wanted to make sure like this was like fully accessible. And so that was kind of how I looked at like the landscape of like what was going on in on college campuses already and like confirmed that there was like possibly room for like one more thing. So then I was like okay, I'm going to do like girl boss gatherings and I didn't really want it to be like a true club or a nonprofit actually, but it more just focuses on like creating like third social spaces for people, for women on campus to network, socialize and also just meet different people outside of other groups they may already be involved in, because, although it's definitely important to have like your niche or your smaller communities.
Speaker 2:There's also so much value in like reaching out to communities that you don't interact with every day. Um, and I think like an experience happens at like a lot of the professional schools here where, like once you get into like a Gillings, once you get into a business school, a husband all of your classes are there. Like you never get the opportunity to like meet as many different people anymore, especially for like our upperclassmen, but I still think that's very valuable and something like a lot of people crave. Like you don't want to be around necessarily the same background interests people all the time, because I feel like it does limit your growth in a way a little bit. So that's when we were like okay, well, this is going to be open to everyone. Some of our events may have like focuses like networking or socializing or wellness, but they're going to be for everyone to participate in.
Speaker 2:I also thought it was important to have like things that span across different grades, just because a lot of clubs at the university level in nature are like big freshman, sophomore year things.
Speaker 2:Like you join freshman year, you try and get on an executive sophomore, junior year, but then by the time you're late junior year, senior year rolls around, you're not really as involved because you kind of have gone up and down like the ladder kind of in the first two, three years and that's, although that's like understandable, it's like hard then because, like freshmen aren't really getting to see seniors who may be on like the same career path or the same journey as them, and I think it's important to kind of have that like cross collaboration across like the university.
Speaker 2:So that was our really big thing and we also have exec in every year. We are about to announce like our new first year exec member and I just thought it was important to like have as much as possible everyone represented and like in leadership, like we have girls who are in sororities, we have girls who are in other, like women in business clubs who are like on our exec team, and it's like creates a really good combination of people and like everyone just gets to talk about like their general, like girlhood experience and I think that's been really positive yeah, I remember seeing you all pub the original like first event.
Speaker 1:I thought that it was so amazing that y'all were doing that. I even had the opportunity to go to one of the events last year and truly the vision that you had for it. I seen it come to fruition and I think it's so amazing and I'm very proud of what you all have been able to do and accomplish. I feel like, especially being at UNC and within the various fields that maybe a lot of us want to go into, sometimes they can feel male, dominated or a lot of women will go through imposter syndrome. So, just being able to create a space where we truly are all there for each other, we want to help each other grow, see each other, you know, be the best versions of ourselves, I feel like it's so important, and sometimes that's just fragile in today's society with how I feel like mean things have been in the past or just how competitive it can be. So it's very refreshing and nice to see when other girls are cheering girls on and truly wanting us to be the best versions of ourselves, and so I also.
Speaker 1:Now I want to talk about your global and your professional growth. In a sense, I know that you've had such a diverse set of experiences with studying abroad in London, and even reading your bio, you talked about how you were interning at a bank, in an ad agency. So how did these opportunities shape your perspective on your career paths and the type of leader that you want to be?
Speaker 2:Yeah. So, like I mentioned earlier, I like came into undergrad pre-med and, like my thing, that I had mapped out for me for like my like medical related extracurricular that wasn't like clinical hours was going to be like health marketing and leadership. I was originally planning to do like and I still am doing. But when I was like like biopsych, whatever STEM major, I was planning to do the health communications minor as like kind of my thing. That made me different from like other applicants. So I started working in marketing for like campus health and just like helping them do like social media, about like different initiatives on campus around mental health, around vaccines, around healthcare options that the student healthcare plan provides, and that was like kind of my pivot into like the marketing slash brand world. That was kind of my pivot into the marketing slash brand world. And after that I really like to utilize different alum because a lot of alum have already gone through some of the changes or experiences that we're going through as current students and I'd say I have probably five alum that I consistently call. They're all on different types of marketing business and even one of them is still a doctor and she's just still my go-to mentor, but they're all also different ages so they can really relate and tell me about what these different stages are going to feel like and just prepare me for what's happening. So it was actually a mentor of mine when I was like first making the transitioning over to like marketing and business who suggested I study abroad through UNC because UNC would give you like an internship and that was kind of like one of my first big internships, which was a lot easier to get because UNC like placed us within the alum community abroad and that was at Halpern, which is like an advertising influencer management agency and that was like my. That was for me like a really big break because it's kind of hard when you switch majors or switch interests a little bit into college because a lot of like the paths that people were using, like the MLTs, the SEOs, like those are closed. Like I'm a second semester sophomore, like I'm just now taking my first like econ class. So although those paths are closed, there's a lot of alum who like maybe have experience like switching careers later, switching careers after college and can like guide you to like the little things UNC has that can kind of help you fully move over.
Speaker 2:So second semester sophomore year I studied abroad in London, I got to do that internship at the ad agency and during that time I was using like that internship experience to like really pitch myself to some of the like the sophomore programs that existed and then pitch myself to like summer internships that were still open, and that was probably my game changer. Honestly, like for me I really recommend like UNC study abroad just because it for like our DC program, for our South Africa program, our London program, you get to take one last class and one less class and you get like class credit for your internship and for me that really helped me like level up and like take this like new career direction to like a little bit of a more serious level. And then I was able to come back junior year with like a spring and summer internship under my belt and I think that really helped propel me to like where I am now under my belt and I think that really helped propel me to like where I am now. The summer after my sophomore year I had actually worked for a UNC alum, antonio McBroom.
Speaker 2:If you go here you know the Ben and Jerry's on Franklin Street. He actually owns that one and about like 25 other Ben and Jerry's along with like two or three Starbucks. Now he does like franchise development so I did marketing for him and it was really cool because he like flew me around to go see a bunch of different Ben and Jerry's locations and I was able to like help each Ben and Jerry's like team shape their marketing for like that community. So I went to see the Tampa Ben and Jerry's which is more in like a tourist area. So we did like partnerships with local aquariums, with local boat rental companies, and then I also got to go see the one in UGA which is way more college oriented. So we got to plan back to school campaigns, reach out to like different event coordinators at the school to get Ben and Jerry's like into events like you know, like Heelfest and like the first week of events that we have here, and so that really helped me gain an understanding of what it was like to kind of change your marketing strategy for different geographic regions in different groups of people.
Speaker 2:And then before I like studied abroad in London I actually did like I made my own like winter study abroad semester and I went to Monrovia, liberia, to learn about like political marketing and government marketing. Specifically they had a tourism agency that was really trying to bring people to Monrovia and make it one of the like go-to locations for people visiting Africa. So I did some work for them. And then there were some small businesses who were looking to expand to the general diaspora and get their products starting to be shipped to America and to the UK. So I was helping them with some logistics and then helping them with some marketing on Facebook.
Speaker 1:Oh wow, I had no clue that you'd done all these things. This is very cool. So, within all of these experience that you're having, do you feel like it's now kind of helped to shape where you are with your own sort of marketing that you've done for yourself? Now I know that, like I mentioned before, you've represented brands like Grammarly and Bear Paw and Uber Eats and, you know, even building your own presence on campus. So, through all of the marketing internships and experience that you have, what do you feel like you've now learned, or how can that translate to personal branding and still staying authentic to yourself while also working with these bigger companies?
Speaker 2:Yeah. So I think the one thing I've learned about experiences you can hate them, you can love them, but no experience is really a waste, because every experience provides clarity. So there's some brands that I've worked. I just either maybe didn't end up loving the product as much as I thought I did. I didn't love, maybe, the direction their social media team was trying to go and, although, like, maybe, I didn't personally enjoy it, want to continue it after, like my contract. It gave clarity on, like the type of work I wanted to do in the future, which I ultimately think it's important because, as much as everyone wants to find the thing that they love and that they want to do for the rest of your life, you also need to start X-ing things off, like you need to start figuring out this is not the avenue I'd want, and that's been helpful for me, like working. I think now I've worked for over like three dozen brands throughout college and like that's like 36 brands, 36 like teams that I've gotten to meet and for me that's really helped me get clarity on the type of jobs I want post-grad and the type of careers I want, just because certain social media teams or certain companies don't prioritize their marketing. That's just not their thing. They really focus on product development. So, as someone who wants to do marketing, it's not going to be always the best fit for me to go to a company like that, because maybe their event budget's a little smaller, maybe their ad budget's a little smaller, whereas some companies they focus maybe a little less on perfecting the product but a lot on getting it out there and their marketing teams tend to be blessed with the big event budgets, a lot of options, the traveling and that really, as a marketer, allows you to like grow and have ownership in that field. And that's what working with some of these brands as like a contractor, as a freelancer, as an ambassador, has really helped me see like a lot of the internal dynamics that shape your experience at a company, because it's really not just the name. A lot of it is more just your boss, your location, the team budget Like those are the big things and that being like a brand ambassador for so many different people has helped me just understand some of those like more complicated internal dynamics.
Speaker 2:But it's also like opened the doors for me to do like crazy things I had done, like some I had for Grammarly. I had done a focus group for them one time and from that focus group, like two years later, they ended up doing like a real life consumers like commercial. And I got an email from this lady who had done this focus group with like two years ago. She's like hey, like we really liked your personality, we're trying to do a commercial featuring real people. We would love for you to like try out and like see if this could work and like now I get to be on like a commercial that's like aired on like Hulu and YouTube and it's like so crazy to see myself on TV. But the only reason that opportunity came around is because I did like a little project and I think that like really always confirmed the lesson for me.
Speaker 2:But like people always talk about like doing the small things, volunteering, doing the free thing for people, because you never really know what saying yes that one time, what you're really saying yes to in the future. And I think that's so important because I think sometimes in college you kind of get stuck with like you kind of get stuck chasing the big thing, the big name, the internship, the job, the leadership title, but a lot of the people you're interacting with on your way to that goal, have the power to have you skip all of those steps and instantly be somewhere. And that's just something I've really learned about. No ask or person is too small. You're never bigger than the program. Like, and it's important to like put your time in and like give up things and give up your time when you can.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I remember that's literally what sparked me being like, okay, time is too much. Time has gone by where you haven't been on my podcast. When I saw that Grammarly commercial I'm on YouTube and I hear your voice and I'm like, wait a saw that Grammarly commercial, I'm on YouTube and I hear your voice and I'm like wait a minute, like I know her, and I look at the screen and it's you. I'm like, oh, my goodness, no way, it's Lauren.
Speaker 1:So I think even you mentioning you know you never know what you're saying yes to in the future and how baby steps, small steps, matter. I feel like that's super, super important. And I also feel like it's hard kind of not to compare yourself to others, especially whenever we are kind of all are at the same point in life. It feels like I think, that being in college, it's kind of the one time where all of you are still kind of all figuring it out and figuring out what you want to do. So how are you kind of able to not compare yourself to others or feel that maybe something that you see is working for others if you try to do it and it doesn't necessarily work out the same way, how are you kind of able to combat with that and continue staying the course.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So I think, like as much as social media has been like a super positive force for me, like I've gotten so many opportunities from like Instagram, from LinkedIn, and like I love that. I do obviously recognize, though, that what, like I've never posted anything like bad about my life that's happening on Instagram or LinkedIn and like by that metric, like no one else probably does either. And sometimes I think you can obviously get really caught up in like comparing, but for me, like you can't compare, like you don't really know people like on social media, you just don't, and like you don't really know their goals, their vision, what their future is. So you can spend hours of your week comparing yourself to people who don't even have the same goal as you, who don't even want the same things as you, and you're analyzing their journey because you think it looks good or appealing, but those may not even be the right steps for what you want to do, which is why I've really tried to align myself with like mentors who, like, do have the same goals as me, who all took different avenues to it, and I was literally talking to like two CMOs who both graduated from UNC, one from the business school, one from Hussman, one went to get an MBA, one didn't. One started at an ad agency, one started in-house. They went to the same school, which is already coincidental enough, but everything they did at this school and after that school was totally different. And now they're both CMOs at two competitive companies, companies that are constantly competing with each other, like constantly competing with each other. And it's just funny because, like you're both in the same industry, in the same space, doing the same roles at pretty much identical companies, but you both did it totally different, other than the fact that you both went to UNC for undergrad. And things like that always kind of ground me because there's just a thousand ways to do it.
Speaker 2:There's not one way to do any goal, there's not one way to graduate, there's not one way to do college and you really have to play to your own strengths. Like for me, I was never like a super big, like GPA girl, like I was never going to be like the 4.0 girl. That's just like not where my strength is. So I really rely on things like building like a really robust portfolio. So when I'm like talking to recruiters and stuff, it's never going to be like oh, I took this econ class and that econ one and I'm doing econ research. It's always going to be. Let me share my screen real quick. Like let me show you my portfolio.
Speaker 2:Like I've done content for this brand, I'm posted on this brand's page. Like I've done their events, I've represented them at this festival, and I think you just have to pick what's for you and play to your strength, because, although it's important to develop your weaknesses and definitely improve on them, you still have your strengths and there's nothing wrong with those things. You just have to figure out how in the individual market, slash job slash world that you're trying to succeed in, how you can really make those work. And for me that looks like a lot more like cold outreach to recruiters, having conversations with people, because I know like off first glance, maybe if you saw like my transcript, you'd see like some of the STEM courses and like just maybe feel like, since I transitioned later, I wouldn't have the experience, slash like background. But if I get like a conversation with people and I'm able to like talk more talk about like how some of these like STEM classes I took have really shaped my thinking in terms of like psychology and process mapping, like I think I'm able to win people over that way, and I think you just have to find which is for you.
Speaker 2:And I think you can't and my mentors always encourage this like you can't have one dream, you need to have like five.
Speaker 2:So, like in like my dream, like post-grad life, like I have like a little dream of me like doing marketing for like a political campaign in DC.
Speaker 2:I have like a dream of me doing like influencer marketing in LA. I have like a dream of me doing like tech marketing in LA. I have a good dream of me doing like tech marketing in like San Francisco. And, like you know, although I may have like favorites and stuff, I have like five different semi things that I can be working towards and be happy with. And so I think like opening yourself up to like not just be like I want to be a consultant in Boston, like that's a very narrowed focus in something that may not happen when you're 23, it may happen when you're 25, when you're 27, but you kind of have to have different versions of life that you're okay with and that you can picture yourself doing yeah, I think that is really great advice and it's so much easier kind of said than done, but it really is something that I feel like is important that we should all keep in mind and do our best to stick with.
Speaker 1:And again, I appreciate you so much for just coming on and sharing your journey and your story. I really think that it's inspiring. You have a really cool and unique journey, um that you've just had within these last four years, and I'm super excited to see where you end up, because I know you will go on to do amazing things. And to close this out, and I have a signature question that I ask at the end of each episode, and it's what's one piece of advice you'd give Gen Z? To go out and diversify themselves, whether it's through experiences, knowledge or building their own brand.
Speaker 2:I think I would tell people to hang around people who aren't like you. That's my number one piece of advice. If you want diverse experiences, you want different things. You have to hang around people who aren't like you I'd say my top five closest friends. None of them are in husband with me, none of them are in public policy with me, and that's because I value their differences and I value what that brings to my life and how like even it's just honestly stimulating from an intellectual level.
Speaker 2:Like I'd say like one example of this that I always think about is there was like a tech organization here who had gone to, like the Huston School and hung up flyers saying we're looking for a social media exec member, we're looking for a social media exec member. Are saying we're looking for a social media exec member, we're looking for a social media exec member, and I honestly like really respected that but also, like thought it was so cool that, like, for whatever reason they knew they couldn't source that from their, I think, majority like BME majors, like that wasn't a skill set that they were finding within their community. So they like were like let's actively look in another community, and I really respected that and I think, like I hope like a bunch of Hussman students saw that and were like, wait, let me, let me run their social, their club social media, let me run their emails and stuff, because that's going to bring you around different people. You could now be in a situation where you did their social media for like a year and one of the kids who's doing engineering at like a health firm is like, hey, my company is also hiring marketing people. Like, let me internally refer you because we've worked together before.
Speaker 2:Or hey, this lab on campus like it's a paid opportunity. They need marketing people to help make their PowerPoints and their posters for conferences. Like, let me connect you. And those are the type of opportunities that are going to bring you like that breadth and diversity of experience that everyone so craves and desires, and so I think it's just like you've got to be around people who aren't like you.
Speaker 1:That's really good advice. Thank you so much again for coming on, lauren. I will be sure to include your LinkedIn and any other contact information you like me to in the bio of this episode for everyone to connect with you if they have any other questions that they'd like to ask you. Thank you all so much for listening to this episode of Diversify Heart and I'll catch you next time.