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My story begins at Emory University in Atlanta, where I majored in English and Journalism. As part of my studies, I did over 200 hours of internships which included working at the Atlanta Journal Constitution, CNN, and Jezebel Magazine. I always loved writing and these experiences helped me hone my storytelling skills and piqued my interest in digging deeper to understand different perspectives and back stories through interviews and research.
I realized before I graduated that there were certain components of journalism that didn’t suit me. My first job out of college was at Media Metrix, a digital measurement company that was later acquired by comScore. I was working for about 6 months when the dot com bubble burst. I survived multiple reductions in the workforce because I was so early in my career (aka cheap). I was given more responsibility than I deserved and my boss told me to “sink or swim.” Having this experience early on in my career taught me to be comfortable outside of my comfort zone. Since that time, I have never taken a role that didn’t scare me a little.
I’m an avid reader and some of my favorite types of books to read are memoirs and biographies. I am fascinated by how resilient people are and I absolutely love learning about how remarkable people do incredible things despite facing significant headwind.
I have been blessed with strong female role models in my family and all throughout my career so it’s hard to name one. My grandmother was a real bad ass though. She lost her own mom as a young girl, but had 6 sisters that were very close. She had my mom when she was 42, which was unheard of during that time. She worked her entire life and was a tough cookie with a heart of gold. She was driving, getting her hair and nails done when she was 95 and even as she got sick, she insisted on wearing fancy night gowns and slippers with little heels. She was full of energy and spunk every day that she lived.
I’d obviously love to see a female president. Additionally, Whitney Wolfe Herd, Bumble’s CEO, just shattered another glass ceiling by becoming the youngest self-made billionaire after her company’s IPO. This is great, but it’s also an outlier in an industry that is dominated by men. I would love to witness more female founders get funding and succeed to the same extent as Whitney. Boards are also coming around, but we still have work to do including more women and minorities.
Dove is a brand that has been celebrating real women effectively for years and continues to put messages out that promote healthy body images and support women’s’ self esteem.
We’ve always been telling stories about female entrepreneurs and celebrating their success. For example, we launched our first ever brand campaign in 2020 that featured stories from small business owners highlighting how they were managing through the pandemic. Three of the six businesses we highlighted were women led businesses. We’ll continue developing and sharing stories about female owned and operated businesses.
Lauren Weinberg is an experienced and goal-oriented marketing executive with 20 years of experience. She's an expert in finding insights in data and using them to drive strategic marketing plans that fuel revenue growth. She is currently the Global Head of Marketing and Comms at Square, driving marketing and comms strategy across five countries which includes optimization of all channels, brand strategy, marketing investment, analytics, and marketing technology at Square.
