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Ahead of Financial Literacy Month this April, Secret Deodorant is introducing a multi-year financial empowerment initiative that starts by providing 1 million young women with access to in-depth financial courses and training resources developed and led by highly-renowned female financial experts. The initiative was unveiled yesterday at the New York Stock Exchange during the ‘Young Women’s Financial Wellness Forum,’ hosted in partnership with Seneca Women, a women’s leadership platform dedicated to advancing women in the economy and around the world. The initiative is designed to support young women at the very start of their independent financial journeys, by providing them with the foundational tools needed to succeed today, and in turn, improve their financial wellness.
Gen Z adults in the U.S. report the highest level of stress compared to any other generation, according to the American Psychological Association.1The biggest cause of stress? Money. Financial stress disproportionately impacts women, particularly women of color. Black and Hispanic women generally have higher unmet financial needs, more student loan debt, and are more likely to struggle financially while in school.2 Unfortunately, this disparity can take a toll on a woman’s financial journey.3 By 2030, Secret will empower millions of young women to tackle financial stress and forge a path to equitable wealth.
“As part of Secret’s continued efforts to uplift women, we hope to spark a conversation about financial well-being and provide tools for financial literacy and education,” said Kate DiCarlo, Senior Communications Director, Personal Care Portfolio, Procter & Gamble. “Secret is proud to partner with a diverse group of women to lend their financial expertise to this initiative.”
Secret commissioned an advisory board of renowned multicultural financial experts to help propel its mission of increasing access to financial education, proving that a financially well life is within reach for all women. The financial experts helped launch the initiative by providing practical, tangible advice geared towards the needs and concerns of Gen Z women at Seneca Women’s ‘Young Women’s Financial Wellness Forum’ in partnership with Secret.
Secret’s alliance of financial experts includes:
- Berna Anat: Financial educator and author of “Money Out Loud – All the Financial Stuff No One Taught Us,” helping BIPOC and first-gen folks feel seen in the money world
- Carmen Perez: Creator of MUCH budgeting app, helping individuals manage their money and paychecks
- Giovanna Gonzalez: Founder of The First Gen Mentor, helping first-generation students and young professionals of color entering the workplace to confidently manage their money
- Jamila Souffrant: Founder of Journey to Launch, helping individuals launch into financial freedom
- Marsha Barnes: CEO and founder of The Finance Bar Members Club, helping individuals start their journey to financial wellness
“I understand how imperative it is to be well-versed in the world of finances. From understanding how to get your first credit card, student loans, to how to apply for a mortgage and dealing with debt, it’s a lot to take in,” said Marsha Barnes, personal finance expert and founder of The Finance Bar Members Club. “Through financial therapy and education, I can support women throughout their experiences, and partnering with Secret gives me the opportunity to extend a helping hand to more women in need. I look forward to making a meaningful impact in young women’s lives as they embark on their personal journeys to achieve financial wellness.”
The multi-phased initiative will also take to social media to reach young women through #SecretMoneyMoves, a series of financial literacy social posts that address the ins and outs of prominent financial questions, like how to create a budget, negotiate your first salary, understand your credit score and much more.
Secret has also joined forces with Prosperity Now, the nation’s leading racial economic justice organization, to help remove the barriers for young women in need to achieve financial equity. The organization’s mission is to drive economic opportunity for all and build equitable economic power through impactful systemic change; centering those who have been historically excluded, amplifying community-rooted solutions, and energizing them through research, advocacy, policy and narrative change.
To learn more about Secret’s new financial empowerment programming, visit Secret.com/MoneyMoves.
Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse blew everyone away in 2018, introducing mainstream audiences to Spider-Man Miles Morales, as well as a host of multiversal variants of everyone’s favorite wall-crawler. The film was a hit at the box office, and won Best Animated Feature at the Academy Awards. Now, after several delays, the first of two sequels is finally hitting theaters next year, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse. A third film, Beyond the Spider-Verse, arrives in 2024.
In addition to these entries, the Spider-Verse franchise will also release a short from Sony Pictures Animation and Sony Pictures Imageworks. This short will be titled “The Spider Within.” Per Variety, here is the synopsis for this next Miles Morales animation:
In the short, Miles Morales struggles to balance his responsibilities as a teenager, friend and student while acting as Brooklyn’s friendly neighborhood superhero. After a particularly challenging day living with these pressures, Miles experiences a panic attack that forces him to confront the manifestations of his anxiety and learn that reaching out for help can be just as brave an act as protecting his city from evil.
Our favorite heroes face many enemies that seem surreal and very fictional. But anxiety and the pressures of life can fell as all. Allowing Spider-Man to face these issues, especially since he’s really just a teen, will be a powerful thing. The Spider-Verse short will l debut at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival in June. Hopefully, it will also release to the public soon after that.
In addition, Sony Pictures Animation and Sony Pictures Imageworks will launch a new mentorship program called LENS (Leading and Empowering New Storytellers). The publication shares that “the new program aims to provide high-potential candidates from underrepresented groups an opportunity to gain valuable leadership experience.”
Here is everything we know about the first, long-awaited continuation of Miles Morales’ adventures across the multiverse.
Title
The title for the first sequel to Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse is Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse.
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse‘s Plot
In this movie, Miles Morales will reunite with his friends Spider-Gwen and Peter B. Parker, and also team up with Spider-Man 2099, Spider-Punk, and the original Spider-Woman, Jessica Drew. Whatever multi-dimensional shenanigans the story entails will see multiple animation styles at play. The villain is an often mocked villain from the comics, called the Spot. But for the film, they have given the Spot a power upgrade. Now he has abilities that allow for him to create portals to other realms of the multiverse. Early toy reveals for also show that Ben Reilly, the so-called “Spider-Clone” from the ’90s, as well as a Cyborg Spider-Woman also feature in the plot.
Of course, we will also see many new Spider-Man variants in Across the Spider-Verse.
And, per a recent article on Empire, five new worlds in total. According to the article, there’s Spider-Gwen’s Earth-65, which is done in watercolors. Additionally, we’ll visit Mumbattan, an India-inspired world, Nueva York where Spider-Man 2099 lives, and New London, the world of Spider-Punk. There’s one more universe besides all of those, but that’s a secret for now.
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse‘s Cast
Across the Spider-Verse will see many returning cast members from the first film, like Shameik Moore (Miles Morales), Hailee Steinfeld (Gwen Stacy), Jake Johnson (Peter B. Parker), Oscar Isaac (Spider-Man 2099), Brian Tyree Henry (Jefferson Davis), Luna Lauren Vélez (Rio Morales), Issa Rae (Jessica Drew/Spider-Woman), Jason Schwartzman (the Spot), and Daniel Kaluuya (Spider-Punk). Shea Whigham is also part of the cast, as police captain George Stacy, Gwen’s father. Jorma Taccone plays the Vulture, as a secondary villain.
Recently, we learned that Deadpool franchise actor Karan Soni would join Across the Spider-Verse as Pavitr Prabhakar or Spider-Man India. This is an exciting addition to an already incredible cast.
There’s no official word yet if we’ll see cameos from some characters from Into the Spider-Verse not officially listed in the cast for the sequel. As far as the official cast listing, there’s no indication that variants like Peter Porker will appear again. But it would not surprise us to see some of them. It would also not shock us to see and hear animated versions of the live-action Spider-Mans like Tom Holland, Andrew Garfield, and Tobey Maguire, although none of them are confirmed.
One Spider-Man we won’t see returning, though is Nicolas Cage’s Spider-Man Noir. Here’s what Cage had to say about Spider-Man Noir’s presence in Across the Spider-Verse.
You’d have to ask Sony. I don’t know what’s going on with that… No one’s spoken to me about that. Ask them. I don’t know. I really don’t. I wish they would. I love Spider-Man Noir, too. I think that’s a great character. Spider-Man’s the coolest superhero. And then you combine that with [James] Cagney and [Humphrey] Bogart and Edward G. Robinson, come on, it’s a great character.
That’s one Spider-Man variant we’re sad to see go.
Behind the Scenes
Across the Spider-Verse is directed by Joaquim Dos Santos, Kemp Powers, and Justin K. Thompson, in their feature directorial debuts. The script comes from the original film’s writing team of Phil Lord, Christopher Miller, and David Callaham. Like the first film, this one is a Sony Pictures Animation production, and Marvel Studios had no involvement.
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse‘s Release Date
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse hits theaters on June 2, 2023.
The post An Upcoming SPIDER-VERSE Short Will Tackle Dealing with Anxiety appeared first on Nerdist.
Dungeons & Dragons is an amazing game. It helps people make friends, helps people work on social skills, has a role in some therapy. However, for all of the awesome stuff that Dungeons & Dragons does, it also holds a dark power. Yes, friends, our beloved RPG can not only create relationships, but it can also destroy them. Once, it nearly destroyed a Major League Baseball team from within (via Royals Review). I’m not even joking.
The Royals are a baseball team out of Kansas City, Missouri, and prior to the 2016 season starting, the team started a D&D campaign. What started as a pleasant escape and a unique way to build camaraderie among teammates slowly deteriorated and caused such a huge rift among Royals players that it started to affect how the team played. Royals Review interviewed one of the players. They anonymously explained the situation in more detail.
Ned Yost, the Royals’ manager, took on the role of Dungeon Master. While it’s kind of awesome that the team’s manager stepped up to the DM plate, apparently Yost was no Matthew Mercer. Yost’s campaigns were confusing, according to the Royal Review‘s anonymous informant, and Yost also had a really bad habit of pitting the players against monsters that were far too advanced. However, the dice would always seem to roll just right, and the adventurers would find themselves victorious despite overwhelming odds. While the rolls were good, the team was happy—it was actually kind of funny to them. Of course, Lady Luck did not always bless the team’s rolls, and so tensions ran high whenever the natural 20s became more and more rare.
But a shaky DM wasn’t the only problem. There was also the issue of the team’s healer in the Dungeons & Dragons campaign, played by Royals shortstop Alcides Escobar. The role of the healer is crucial to a campaign, and they have to be careful about how they interact with threats. Escobar, however, adhered to the Leeroy Jenkins school of thought. He had a bad habit of plowing ahead, right into the clutches of danger. Much like Yost’s overly challenging monster fights, Escobar’s Leeroy Jenkins antics made the team laugh at first—until they didn’t stop. It didn’t take long for the joke to get old.
With issues like that paired with players who were really dedicated and invested in the game, it seemed this fun game of D&D pulled the Royals apart at the seams. Tensions weren’t only high on game night. The conflict also made the Royals play pretty poorly. The team had to work to repair their D&D-sized rift. We can only hope they switched to watching Critical Role together rather than actually playing D&D during the baseball season.
Originally published on August 2, 2016.
The post The Time DUNGEONS & DRAGONS Nearly Broke Up a Baseball Team appeared first on Nerdist.