María Carolina Josefina Pacanins y Niño was born in Caracas, Venezuela to a high class and wealthy family. In 1957, at age 18, she married Guillermo Behrens Tello and had two daughters. They divorced after seven years, and she returned to live with her parents. In 1964, at the age of 25, she began to work as a publicist at the Caracas boutique of the Italian fashion designer Emilio Pucci. In 1968, she married Reinaldo Herrera Guevara, a TV morning news host and the 5th Marquis of Torre Casa. The couple had a lavish lifestyle, traveling around the world and spending time with royals and artists, such as Princess Margaret, Andy Warhol, and Mick and Bianca Jagger. Herrera became known for her dramatic style and fashion choices and regularly appeared on the Best Dressed lists. In 1980, Herrera moved with her family to NYC. Encouraged by her friend and Editor-in-Chief of Vogue, Diana Vreeland, Herrera began to design clothes, presenting 20 dresses at a friends’ apartment. In the following year, at the age of 42, Herrera debuted her first collection at the Manhattan’s Metropolitan Club, introducing the world the padded shoulders and big elaborate sleeves, which became the trademark of the 1980s fashion. Her designs were popular, and buyers wanted to purchase her entire line. Within a few months, she opened a showroom, and her designs were famous for their glamorous and sophisticated style. In 1986, Herrera’s success turned global after designing the wedding dress for Caroline Kennedy, John F. Kennedy, and Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis’s daughter. Herrera expanded her brand, and in addition to custom-made dresses, she offered a ready-to-wear line and bridal wear. In 1988, Herrera launched her first perfume, followed by eyewear and accessory lines. In 1995, at 56, she sold her label, remaining as the creative director of the “Herrera” group. In this position, she introduced the CH Carolina Herrera brand and opened the group’s first store in NYC, soon branching abroad. By 2012 there were 18 Carolina Herrera boutiques worldwide, selling the brand in 280 stores in more than 100 countries. In 2018, at the age of 79, Herrera stepped down as creative director and took on the role of global brand ambassador. Read more...

Born Audrey Kathleen Ruston in Brussels, Belgium. Her mother was a Dutch baroness, and her father was British with an aristocratic background. In her early childhood, the family traveled between Brussels and England. At the age of 6, after her father left the family, she moved with her mother to the family estate in Arnhem, The Netherlands, and two years later, she returned to England to attend boarding school. In 1939, after the United Kingdom declared war on Germany, Hepburn returned to Arnhem, thinking that it would remain neutral. During WWII, Hepburn and her mother were relatively safe but did endure hardships – her half-brother got deported to a German labor camp, her uncle was murdered, and she suffered from anemia as a result of malnutrition due to the 1944 Dutch famine. After the war, 16 years old Hepburn moved with her mother to Amsterdam, where she worked at the Royal Military Invalids Home and continued her ballet training. At 19, she returned to London to study acting and ballet, supporting herself by working as a model. When she was told that she was too tall and too weak to become a prima ballerina, Hepburn channeled her focus toward acting. At 23, while shooting a film in Monte-Carlo, Hepburn caught the French novelist Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette’s attention. who decided to cast her for the leading role in the Broadway adaptation of her novel Gigi. Hepburn received praises for her performance, and in the same year, she launched her Hollywood career, starring in the movie Roman Holiday alongside Gregory Peck. The film was a hit, and Hepburn charmed the audience with her portrayal of the young princess, for which she won an Academy Award for Best Actress, a BAFTA Award, and a Golden Globe Award. Following her success, Hepburn signed a seven-picture contract with Paramount Studios, which included the film, Sabrina, gaining her another BAFTA Award. In 1954, Hepburn returned to the stage as the water nymph in Ondine, for which she received a Tony Award. At the production, she met her first husband, her co-star Mel Ferrer, and the couple settled in Switzerland, the place she called home when she did not film in the US. In the next decade, Hepburn starred in a series of successful features, such as War and Peace, The Nun’s Story, and Green Mansions, starring alongside A-list actors. In her 30’s, Hepburn began playing more sophisticated and worldly characters. Including her acclaimed appearance as Holly Golightly in Breakfast at Tiffany’s, Regina in the thriller Charade, and Eliza Doolittle in the musical, My Fair Lady. At 40, after her divorce, Hepburn decided to focus on her family and went into semi-retirement for a few years. She married the Italian psychiatrist Andrea Dotti and had another child. At the age of 47, she resumed her acting career, appearing alongside Sean Connery in Robin and Marian and hosting a traveling documentary-series called Gardens of the World with Audrey Hepburn. Her last film role was in 1989 as the angel in Steven Spielberg’s Always. Overall, Hepburn participated in more than 20 movies and received more than 10 awards for her performances. Throughout her career, Hepburn was known as a fashion icon, recognized for her distinctive look and fashion choices. She had a unique, minimalistic style, wearing clothes with simple silhouettes and monochromatic colors, associated mainly with the “little black dress” she wore in Breakfast at Tiffany’s. Since 1988, Hepburn devoted herself to her duty as a special Goodwill Ambassador for United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF). She traveled to famine-stricken areas to raise awareness of children in need, making more than 50 trips to Africa, Asia, and Central and South America. In 1992, after returning from Somalia, Hepburn was diagnosed with colon cancer. She died in her home in Switzerland at the age of 63. Read more...

Eleanor Lambert was born in Crawfordsville, Indiana. She was always interested in art, and while growing up, she wanted to be a sculptor. Over time fashion became her passion, and after high school, she attended the John Herron School of Art and then the Art Institute of Chicago. At 22 years old, she moved to NYC and began her professional career at an advertising agency. After a short period, she was hired as the Whitney Museum of American Art’s first press director. At the same time, she helped found both the Art Dealers Association of America and the Costume Institute at the Metropolitan Museum of Art to store and preserve exceptional design trends. Lambert opened her advertising agency, specializing in representing artists and art galleries. Within a short time, she earned a reputation that drew world-known artists, such as Jacob Epstein and Jackson Pollock. In 1943, she was appointed as the press director of the New York Dress Institute. In this position, she developed the concept of fashion week in NYC, then called “Press Week.” In the beginning, there were two small-scale fashion weeks every year happening all over the city, but over time the events became the most important fashion events of the year, and she was called to produce similar events all over the world, from Japan to Australia and even in the Soviet Union. As a devoted advocate for American fashion, Lambert always thought of new ways to promote American designers. With that in mind, she founded two establishments that put American fashion on the map – the International Best Dressed List and the Coty Fashion Critics’ Award (today the CFDA Awards, that referred to as “the Oscars of the fashion world”). Lambert worked to bring together American designers, enabling them to unite their voices in issues that affected them, regardless to their success or status. So, in 1962, she founded the Council of Fashion Designers of America. She ran the council for more than a decade and was an honorary member until she passed away in 2003. Three years later, she was appointed by President Johnson as the first US representative to the National Council on the Arts. Afterward, she became active in European fashion circles, representing upcoming designers such as Valentino and Pierre Cardin and exposing them to the American clientele. In 1973, she produced a historical fashion show at the Palace of Versailles, in which five American designers showed alongside five French designers. This show was the turning point in the perception of the European fashion world toward American fashion. Lambert was active in the fashion world until the day she died at the age of 100. In her 75 years career, she worked tirelessly to promote American fashion in the US and abroad and make NYC one of the world’s fashion capitals. Read more...

Anna Wintour was born in London, England, the eldest of five children. Her interest in fashion started at a young age, watching music television broadcasts and reading Seventeen magazine. She attended North London Collegiate School, where she was known for being a rebel for shortening the hemlines of her skirts. At age 15, she began to work at a fashion boutique, and at 16, she dropped out of school to participate in a training program at Harrods while taking fashion classes. Not long after, she began to work at OZ magazine. At the age of 21, Harper’s & Queen magazine hired her as an editorial assistant, and a few years later, she moved to NYC to work as a junior fashion editor at Harper’s Bazaar, from which she got fired because she “did not understand the American market.” Afterward, she found an editor position at an erotic magazine for women, and when it shut down, she took a hiatus from work for a couple of years. In 1980, she returned to NYC and worked as a fashion editor in several magazines until she landed a position as Vogue’s first creative director. At the time, she began dating her future husband, David Shaffer and got married in 1984. The following year, she moved back to London to take over the UK Vogue. After two years, she relocated to NYC to edit House & Garden magazine but shortly after, she was appointed editor-in-chief of US Vogue. In her new position, she made radical changes in the magazine, renewing its focus on fashion and changing the style of the cover pictures. She began to present unfamiliar models and famous women on the covers and mixed high fashion with inexpensive clothes. Under her editorship, the magazine became at the forefront of the fashion world, setting new trends and launching the careers of many models, photographers, and designers. She became and still is the fashion world queen and a fashion icon. Read more...

Donna Ivy Faske was born in Queens, NYC, to a family of Jewish descent. When she was three years old, her father died in a car accident, and afterward, her mother remarried, and the family moved to Hewlett, Long Island. She grew up surrounded by fashion, her mother was a model and a showroom sales representative, and her stepfather was a tailor and suit designer. As a teenager, she began working in the industry, selling clothes at a local boutique. Straight after high school, she began studying at Parsons School of Design and worked as an assistant designer at Anne Klein & Company. Within two years, she was promoted to associate designer, and at the age of 26, when Anne Klein died, she became head designer of the house, alongside Louis Dell’Ollio. In 1985 she launched her label with her second husband. She wanted to design clothes that she would love to wear and “design modern clothes for modern people.” She became recognized for her essentials line – offering seven items that can be mixed and matched. For that, she is credited with initiating the concept of the capsule wardrobe. Three years later, she created DKNY, an affordable fashion line for younger women, and in 1990 she added the DKNY Jeans. In 1992, after seeing the lack of sophisticated clothing for men, she launched DKNY Men. Over time, the Dona Karan brand has grown into a full lifestyle industry, that in addition to apparel, it offered lingerie, handbags, bedding and tableware, fragrances, beauty and cosmetics products, and even home furnishings. Among her regular clients were Barbra Streisand, Richard Gere, Candace Bergen, and Hillary Rodham Clinton. In 1997, Karan left her CEO position at her company but continued to serve as a designer and chairwoman for the Donna Karan line. In 2001, she sold the company to LVMH and but stayed as a designer. In 2007, she launched the Urban Zen brand, in which she integrates fashion and philanthropy. Read more...

Fern Mallis was born in Brooklyn, NYC. Her father sold females’ scarves in the Garment District, and when as a kid, she used to go with him to work, escorting him in his meetings with customers and fashion directors, as well as watching the scarves designers. After high school, she attended University at Buffalo, receiving a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree. At age 21, while still at college, she was selected as a guest editor at Mademoiselle magazine, first as an art editor and later as a merchandising editor. When the fellowship was over, they offered her a job. At 27, she left the magazine and worked at Gimbels East for a while, before founding a relations firm for architects and interior designers with two of her friends. At age 43, Mallis decided to return to the fashion industry and was hired as an executive director of the Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA) – the governing body of fashion designers and runway shows in the US. At this position, she organized the annual CFDA Fashion Awards Galas and launched numerous charities, including the Fashion Targets Breast Cancer and the Design Industries Foundation Fighting AIDS. In 1993, alongside Stan Herman, CFDA ‘s president at the time, she created the 7th on Sixth – a weeklong event that provided a platform for fashion designers to display their work. This annual event, which later became known as NYC Fashion Week, soon grew into an international venue. In 2001, the Fashion Week concept was acquired by IMG company, and Mallis was appointed its Senior VP of IMG Fashion. Under her leadership, Fashion Week became a global phenomenon, with annual shows happening worldwide, from LA and Miami to Berlin, Mumbai, and Sydney. There, she organized the events and served as a judge and as a mentor. At the age of 62, she left IMG to found an international fashion and design consultancy – Fern Mallis LLC. Two years later, she launched a jewelry line called FERN FINDS. Over the years, Mallis featured on many TV programs, such as Project Runway, She’s Got the Look, and America’s Next Top Model. She hosted a conversation series at the 92nd Street Y, in which she interviewed leading figures in the fashion industry, among them, are Donna Karan, Tom Ford, Diane von Furstenberg, and Oscar de la Renta. She serves as a board member of various organizations, including the Partnership for the Homeless, the Steering Committee for NYCx Design Week, and Tara Jewels in Mumbai, India. Read more...

Venus and Serena Williams started playing tennis at the age of 7 and 4 in LA’s public courts, near their home city of Compton, California. They were coached by their parents, who were also their home-school teachers. In 1990, the family moved to West Palm Beach, Florida, where the 10 years old Venus and 9 years old Serena attended the tennis academy of Rick Macci. They began to compete in national junior tennis tournaments but stopped in the following year to focus on their education. Five years later, the sisters were pulled out from the academy and were coached solely by their father. Venus’ professional career began at the age of 14. Within three years, she reached the US Open singles on her first attempt. She became famous for her groundstrokes and powerful serves, which gained her the first Olympic gold medal in the singles competition, and her first in the doubles alongside her sister in the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney. She continued winning one tournament after another, including Wimbledon and the US opens. In 2007, She was diagnosed with Sjogren’s syndrome, an autoimmune disease that affected her game. Although it slowed her down, it did not stop her from playing, and in 2019, at the age of 39, she was the oldest player to compete in that year Wimbledon tournament. Her achievements are not reserved only to the court. She has an associate degree in fashion design from the Art Institute of Fort Lauderdale, a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration from Indiana University East, and an interior design certificate. She started an interior design firm called V Starr Interiors, a collection of women’s apparel for Wilson’s Leather, as well as a clothing line named EleVen. She is also working with UNESCO, promoting gender equality all over the world. Much like her older sister, Serena’s talent was noticed as soon as she was able to hold a racquet, and at the age of 10, she already served topped 100 miles per hour. She turned professional at 14, and by 18, she won the US Open for the first time. After winning her first Olympic gold medal with her sister at the 2000 Olympic Games, she won all the important world tournaments, including Wimbledon, the US Open, the French Open, and the Australian Open, defending her titles year after year in singles as well as in doubles. In the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, she and her sister won the doubles tennis gold medal for the second time, and when she won the gold medal at the 2012 London Olympic Games and became the second woman to win a career Golden Slam. In addition to her awarded athlete career, Serena founded a non-profit organization that funds schools in Uganda, Kenya, and Jamaica. She is married and has a daughter. During their careers, the two sisters not only played alongside each other in major Grand Slam tournaments but also one against the other. Between the two of them, Venus and Serena won 30 Grand Slam titles – Venus with 7 and Serena with 23. They won more than 130 Million dollars of prize money.   Dive deeper into the inspiring story of the Williams Sisters with our fun and engaging printable worksheet! Available now on Etsy and Teachers Pay Teachers.   Read more...

When she was 58 years, old Madonna stepped on the stage to receive Billboard’s 2016 Woman of the Year award. The highest-grossing female touring artist of all time was selected due to her influence on music, her vision, innovation, philanthropic work, and her contribution to feminist change towards equal rights. Madonna used the occasion to deliver a daring speech, describing the sexist and ageist behavior that she had to overcome in her career as a musician, actress, and entrepreneur. She outlined her path from her childhood in a small Michigan town, through her first years as a struggling dancer in late 1970s New York City, to becoming the “Queen of Pop Music” with 14 albums, dozen of top hits worldwide, sales of 300 million records and many awards. In 2019 she released her 14th album, ‘Madame X,’ a name given to her by Martha Graham. She delivered her first birth at 38 and is now a single mother of six. Through her career, she pushed the boundaries of music and gender politics. Her influence on women’s liberation was by presenting new ways of owning her sexuality through mainstream media. Read more...

Audrey Marie Munson started her career as a Broadway chorus girl, after moving with her divorced mother to New York City. Her life took a turn at the age of 17, while window-shopping on Fifth Avenue, the teenager was spotted by a photographer who offered her to pose for him. He introduced Audrey to his artists friends, and she soon became a wanted model, often in the nude, for many famous male artists and sculptors. Audrey Munson has posed for iconic sculptures on government buildings and public monuments, many of the statues still in place in the streets of New York city – winning her the title “Miss Manhattan.” Other titles included “The American Venus,” “America’s First Supermodel,” “The Queen of the Artists’ Studios,” and “Panama–Pacific Girl” for modeling for a majority of the carvings at the International Exposition in San Francisco.   Munson took pride in her work, claiming nudity as an expression of female freedom, writing: “Clothes ruined us. They do harm to our bodies and worse to our soul.” She moved to California and shifted her career towards the film industry. She starred in four silent films and is considered the first actress to appear fully nude in an American feature film. She played a sculptor’s model in her first film, “Inspiration” (1915), which is nowhere to be found today. Audrey Munson was also a writer, publishing a series of 20 short stories about her life in the Sunday Magazine. She and her mother became associated with a famous murder case – when their landlord killed his wife, supposedly because he was in love with Audrey. Even though she had no part in the crime, it has affected her reputation negatively. At 40, she was admitted by her mother to a psychiatric institution for depression and schizophrenia. She lived there for the remaining 60 years of her life, until her death at the age of 104. Her gravestone, which was added 20 years after her death, features a small sculpture of an angel figure, dressed. Read more...

Daughter of a wealthy doctor and a suffragist, Katharine Houghton Hepburn started her acting career after graduating from Bryn Mawr College with a degree in philosophy and history. She earned her first lead role in a Broadway play at 25, the same year she had her debut film appearance. Her unique personality, coming across on screen through her accent, was perceived with diverse reactions: some loved her, some didn’t. That inconsistency was a consistent thread in her fascinating 6-decades career as an actress, with dramatic ups and downs. The low came early with devastating reviews on her performance in The Lake play and a being called “box-office poison”. She was not discouraged and went on to feature in 43 films, and dozens of plays and television shows, with multiple nominations, and awards. She was a controversial figure in the 20th-century pop culture for her uncompromising-outspoken-honest personality. She chose to wear comfortable clothes and was instrumental in promoting the then provocative and innovative fashion of wearing pants. In the spirit of openness, she published two books and appeared in a biographical documentary. After the wife of the actor Spencer Tracy died, Hepburn publicly confessed her 27-years relationship with him, whom she described him as her only love. The couple starred together in nine films. After years of an impressing record-breaking career, winning four Academy Awards (although she never attended the Oscar ceremony to collect them), she died at the age of 96. Shortly before that, in 1999, Hepburn was named by the American Film Institute as the greatest female star of Classic Hollywood Cinema. Read more...