What Gloria Steinem and My Mother-in-Law Taught Me About Women and Money

Yes, women absolutely need and deserve money -- but we need need intellectual property even more than we need income (it can seriously save the day)

Oct 28, 2025

I felt sick. I’d read this 30+ year old article about Gloria Steinem’s once-precarious financial situation several million times and that’s a conservative count.

Now, admittedly, it’s because I’m odd. I have chats with Gloria Steinem and Letty Pogrebin and in my head and I have since I was 11 and borrowed every single issue of Ms Magazine I could find in the library. That was a rough summer and Ms Magazine - and by extension, Pogrebin and Steinem — basically co-parented me through it without even ever meeting me. That continued to be the story for years — hell, decades! — after that. I was raised by Ms. Magazine and I have Letty Pogrebin and Gloria Steinem to thank for my surviving and thriving.

And then, in this LA Times piece, I learned that after decades of activism, service, culture-making and publishing, cultural icon Gloria Steinem had no money saved for retirement or emergencies. None.¹

Across her life, she’d taken care of people and causes she cared about, which meant her money disappeared as fast as she made it.

That’s why I felt sick. Because I recognized this dilemma. Nearly every woman I’d grown up with lived in exactly this place.

Miss Daphne and My Big Why

My mother-in-law, Daphne, lived there too.

Mom had no savings, no income, and no assets because she spent her life in uncompensated service to her family. She was in physical jeopardy NOT because of bad choices—which is what the Dave Ramseys of the world want us to believe—but because of virtue, love, caregiving and GENDER.

She spent her life caring for and raising children and grandchildren, nursing her parents. Then, in her time of need, her closest family—including people who lived with her, rent-free, in her house—did not take care of her.

Things came to a crisis. Her family caregiver had a medical incident and was himself incapacitated. My husband went to Trinidad for two weeks to try and sort it out. When he got there, he discovered her living situation was far worse than we knew. In addition to having Alzheimer’s, Daphne was malnourished, had bedsores, and had gone blind because her caregiver wasn’t giving her the glaucoma medicine she needed.

He called me and said, Baby, I can’t leave her like this.

The only way we could see to solve the problem meant that my partner had to quit his job and stay in Trinidad so that he could take care of her. That was late 2016. In early 2017, I sold our house, packed up the kids, and joined him there.

We had a 1 year-old and a gaggle of older kids. At 6pm, when the kids needed dinner and I was still on the phone with clients, Daphne would start sun-downing. She’d get agitated and scared and start banging the walls and shouting and trying to leave the house. Meanwhile, kids with growling tummies are getting stressed and scared...It was a terrible time.

AND. We got Mom out of a bad situation.

During the day, she was sunshine-y and delightful. My partner got to spend time with his mom, which was huge—they’d been separated by oceans and borders and countries for 15 years. Our little ones got to know Trinidad and their grandma. They rallied ‘round her to love her up and soak up her love.

AND. The only reason any of that was possible was because of my body of work and my business.

In 2017, I had my first (barely) six-figure year—double what I’d EVER earned before in my life.

That was the reason my partner could quit his job and take on the caregiver role.

That was the reason we could get Mom to safety.

That’s why Mom was a huge part of My Big Why.

Because this should never have happened to her.

And because this happens every single day to way too many women in our world.

The Question of Deserving

It is essential that women and marginalized peoples—the identities marked in our culture to be the uncompensated or wildly undercompensated labourers propping up our economies and families—accumulate savings, net worth, and wealth. Essential.

Because the social safety net is in tatters and no guarantee and neither, frankly, is love. You can love people all you want and take care of them and there is no guarantee that they will love you back if you’re diagnosed with cancer and can’t work or get Alzheimer’s and need 24/7 care.

This is not just about retirement, our elder years, surviving illnesses and emergencies and being deserving or in need. We don’t have to demonstrate overwhelming need to deserve to have money and resources.

This notion of deserving keeps us small. I believe we’ve internalized the cultural assumption that because we are not straight white men, we’re defective—which means we’ve got to compensate for that defect with becoming The Perfect Woman and with our endless labour. We earn and deserve resources only if we’ve met that criterion.

No.

Let’s assume that every human on this earth is deserving of a flourishing, abundant life and livelihood and a positive net worth. That’s our foundational notion.

When it comes to money, earning, wealth and net worth, let’s take ‘deserving’ and ‘worth it’ out of the equation.

Taking deserving out of it will remove the ability to question whether poor people are getting what they deserve (and the subconscious assumption, in our wealth-revering culture, that yes they deserve to be poor).

(It will also remove the conclusion that no one person deserves “that much”—which perhaps might be harder to swallow.)

Gloria’s Wake-Up Call

Now let’s come back to Gloria Steinem.

In 1986, at age 52, she was diagnosed with breast cancer. She underwent surgery and radiation—and thankfully, the treatment was successful.¹

But the cancer diagnosis served as a brutal wake-up call.

After decades of activism, service, culture-making and publishing, after founding Ms. Magazine and leading the women’s movement, Gloria Steinem had given away all her money to causes and people she cared about. She had no savings. No retirement fund. Nothing.

As she reflected later, “The cancer served a real purpose, making me a little bit more conscious of time.”²

She suddenly realized she could easily slip into desperate times in the last chapter of her life:

*”After 15 years of working on a magazine that regularly admonishes women to plan for their later years, Steinem abruptly realized that ‘I hadn’t saved anything, so that if I were ill, or aging, or whatever, I wouldn’t be able to last for more than a month or two.’”*³

More succinctly, her friend Letty Pogrebin said, “She is 53 years old and she has put away no money, and she is being silly about her life.”³

To resolve this looming crisis, Letty Pogrebin—being the kind of friend we all need—decided to secure Gloria a significant book deal so that she’d have a retirement fund.

And because she’s Gloria Steinem—cultural icon, culture-maker, the woman who co-founded Ms. Magazine and changed millions of lives—her name and fame would move copies. Publishers went into a three-day bidding war for her books.

She ended up with a $1.2 million dollar advance for Revolution from Within.⁴

A million dollars! For Gloria! A retirement fund! Security in the last chapter of her life!

Yes!!

I thrill. I cheer.

At no point did I ask myself, does Gloria Steinem deserve $1.2 million dollars?

Maybe it’s because I love her and she’s given me a life of service and I want her to have a million bucks.

Maybe it’s because I know that if two publishers are willing to pony up that kind of advance, they’ll be making way more off of it in sales, so the value is more than established.

Maybe because it’s only going to cost me $25 per book so it’s no skin off my nose.

It’s probably all of those things.

And those things—the notion of deserving and the asymmetry between what I’ve received (a lot) and what I’m willing to contribute (little)—are a problem.

If I’m only willing to allow Gloria Steinem, the feminist culture-maker who changed my life, a positive net worth if I don’t have to contribute very much...

If I’m only willing compensate Gloria Steinem $50 for everything she’s given me across my life...

...If I’m only willing to do that because she’s Gloria Steinem and my favourite...

...what kind of culture and economy am I supporting? Who else would I deny the ability to accumulate wealth, retirement savings, and power?

Who Gets to Be Wealthy?

Right now, when women build wealth and power, we see three dominant patterns:

1. The Gloria Steinem Pattern: Give It All Away

Women who’ve spent their lives in service—activists, teachers, caregivers, community builders—who reach their elder years with nothing saved because they gave it all away to causes and people they loved.

2. The Female Lifestyle Empowerment Brand Pattern: Extract from Other Women

Women who build empires by selling the promise of empowerment to other women, often through methods that feel predatory or that position women as the product to be harvested from rather than the creators to be compensated.

3. The Ownership Pattern: Build Equity and Keep Control

Women who’ve figured out that the way to wealth isn’t just earning—it’s owning. Who’ve learned to say: I’m keeping this. This is mine. I’m building equity, not just revenue.

It’s this third pattern—the ownership pattern—that’s creating the most dramatic wealth transfers we’ve ever seen among women creators. And it’s happening right now.

The Ownership Moment

There’s a moment in every career where you stop just being good at what you do and start owning what you do.

Pamela Anderson had this moment. During her time on Baywatch, she was the reason people watched—international broadcasters had “Pamela clauses” requiring episodes with her specifically. A C.J. Parker Barbie became a bestseller based on her likeness. She earned up to $300,000 per episode near the end of her run.

But her co-star David Hasselhoff, who was also a producer, made more and had an ownership stake. Someone else owned her intellectual property—her image, her likeness, her character. They trademarked it, licensed it, sold it. Made Barbies out of her. She got a salary. They got the IP.

Then came VIP, where she served as executive producer on 77 episodes from 1998 to 2002. She went from being the talent to being the owner. As she put it, she decided it was time to “self exploit”—a funny, non-threatening way of saying she was done making everyone else rich off her work. (I’ve written more about Pamela’s ownership journey here.)⁵

Kathy Ireland had the same realization. She was offered a spokesperson deal for a sock line—good money, no equity. She turned it down and demanded ownership instead. That decision led to a $4.1 billion company.⁵

Oprah could have taken another raise. Instead, in October 1988, she negotiated to own “The Oprah Winfrey Show,” becoming the first woman in history to own and produce her own talk show. She invested $16 million of her own money to build a production studio. She owned 80% of Harpo Media. And she trademarked her own name—”OPRAH” is registered intellectual property she controls and monetizes.⁵

This is what most people don’t understand about wealth building: salaries are capped. Intellectual property is infinite. You can only work so many hours, command so high a rate. But IP—your courses, your books, your signature frameworks, your methodology—that scales. That compounds. That’s generational wealth.

What “Owning It” Actually Looks Like

For Pamela Anderson, Kathy Ireland, and Oprah, owning it meant negotiating for equity stakes and production rights. That’s one version.

But for most of us building independent platforms, owning it looks different. It means:

Owning your intellectual property - Not just your ideas, but systematizing them into frameworks, methodologies, and teachings that become your signature work. Writing the book. Creating the course. Building the body of work that has your name on it.

Owning your narrative - Taking control of how your work gets positioned, who gets to tell your story, and what platforms amplify your voice. Not waiting for someone to discover you or give you permission.

Owning your infrastructure - Building the systems that generate revenue consistently, not randomly. Creating the pathways that turn your expertise into actual business results month after month.

Owning your commitment - This is the part nobody talks about. Getting rid of your plan B. Going all in on what you’re creating. Doubling down on your work instead of hedging your bets.

For me, going pro meant growing my company from barely six figures to many times that over five years, building out more than 30 courses, and treating my intellectual property like the asset it is. It meant finishing my book (forthcoming). It meant stopping treating my work as a side project and going harder at publicizing it, showing up consistently, building my platform with intention.

That’s what ownership looks like when you’re building an independent platform. Not waiting for a production company to option your work. Not hoping someone discovers you. Building the thing yourself and putting your name on it.

You own your talent. Your worth. Your intellectual property. Your narrative. Your systems. Your sales—they’re not random; you build an engine that produces them consistently.

That’s your “going pro” moment. Not becoming a professional (you already are one). It’s about taking yourself seriously enough to build the infrastructure that turns your expertise into wealth.

Not empire building. Not hype. Revenue stability. Real infrastructure. Your methodology systematized so it generates income without keeping you trapped in 1:1 sessions.

The New Wave: Women Who Own

And now we’re seeing this ownership pattern accelerate at every level—from independent platform builders to Hollywood moguls. Look at what’s happening in 2024 and 2025:

Taylor Swift became the first musician to reach billionaire status primarily through music and touring, with a net worth now between $1.6-2 billion. Her Eras Tour generated over $2 billion in ticket sales. But here’s what matters most: in May 2025, she purchased back the masters to her original six albums. She spent years re-recording her catalogue because someone else owned her work. Now she owns it all.⁶

Reese Witherspoon sold her production company Hello Sunshine to Blackstone for $900 million in 2021, while retaining 18% ownership. Her net worth sits at $400-450 million. But what’s powerful isn’t just the sale—it’s what Reese revealed: despite producing hits like Wild, Gone Girl, and Big Little Lies that made $600 million at the box office, she initially couldn’t keep the lights on with four employees. She had to learn business fundamentals, asking her CEO “the dumbest questions you can possibly imagine.” That vulnerability—that willingness to not know—is what led to the $900 million exit.⁷

Rihanna is worth $1.4 billion, primarily from owning 50% of Fenty Beauty (valued at $2.8 billion) and 30% of Savage X Fenty. Yes, her net worth dropped $400 million in 2025 due to flat sales and business setbacks—but she’s still a billionaire. Because she owns the companies, not just endorses them.⁸

Shonda Rhimes signed with Netflix in 2017 for $100-150 million. After Bridgerton became one of Netflix’s most-watched series (82 million households in its first 28 days), Netflix expanded her deal in 2021 to an estimated $300-400 million over five years. She’s not just making content—she’s building an empire with merchandising, gaming, live events, and film production rights.⁹

Ava DuVernay has a net worth of $60 million and secured a $100 million deal with Warner Bros. in 2018. She founded ARRAY to amplify work by women and people of color—and she’s doing it while building wealth. Her mission and her money are aligned.¹⁰

Issa Rae turned a YouTube web series (Awkward Black Girl) into a $20 million fortune. Her production company Hoorae signed a $40 million multi-year deal with WarnerMedia in 2021. She’s also co-founded Sienna Naturals haircare, invested in Streamlytics (helping people of color control their digital data), and launched Viarae prosecco. She told Forbes: “It happened organically, and it happened because these were things that we were all already doing. For me, it was just about formalizing it and building intention around it.”¹¹

These women aren’t just earning. They’re owning.

They’re not waiting for someone to give them permission. They’re not limiting themselves to what seems reasonable or modest or appropriately humble.

They’re building companies. Keeping equity. Demanding control.

And critically: they’re all doing great work, putting out stories and perspectives otherwise missing from our cultural milieu. Their ownership doesn’t compromise their mission—it enables it.

When Issa Rae owns Hoorae Media, she gets to greenlight shows about Black women that the industry said nobody wanted to see. When Ava DuVernay founded ARRAY, she created distribution for films by women and people of color that Hollywood ignored. When Reese Witherspoon built Hello Sunshine, she made sure women’s stories with female creators actually got made.

And when Qveen Herby left her label and started Checkbook Records, she got to channel her higher self—the witch-entrepreneur who refuses to choose between tarot and business plans, between healing journeys and ambitious world-building. (I’ve written about her alchemical transformation here.)

Ownership isn’t about selling out. It’s about staying in the game long enough to change it.

Why This Matters

Let me bring this back to where we started: Gloria Steinem and my mother-in-law, Miss Daphne.

Two women, a generations between them, who spent their lives in service and caregiving. Two women who gave everything to the people and causes they loved. Two women who ended up with nothing saved for their vulnerable years.

But here’s what they had in common: they both had something to leverage when the crisis came.

Gloria had her body of work—decades of writing, activism, culture-making. She had built intellectual property even if she hadn’t monetized it properly. And she had Letty Pogrebin, a friend who saw the crisis coming and helped her turn that lifetime of work into a $1.2 million book deal.

My mother-in-law had her son—my partner—who loved her enough to quit his job and fly to Trinidad to rescue her. And she had my business and body of work, which I’d been building for years, that generated enough income that we could actually do it.

Both women were saved by the same things: relationships and intellectual property that could be converted into resources when the crisis hit.

Here’s the difference between income and intellectual property:

Income is what you earn. It comes in, it goes out. You exchange your time and expertise for money, and when you stop working, the money stops coming.

Intellectual property is what you own. It can be leveraged, licensed, sold, converted into cash over and over again. It generates value even when you’re not in the room. It can be converted into resources when you need them most.

Gloria didn’t have income when her crisis hit—she’d given it all away. But she had IP. A lifetime of writing and activism that could be packaged into a book deal worth over a million dollars.

My mother-in-law didn’t have income. But I did, because I’d been building a business—intellectual property that generated revenue whether I was on a call or dealing with a screaming toddler at 6pm. My body of work and my resources allowed me to protect a woman I loved.

That — your money allows you to protect and contribute — is exactly the opposite of the story we get told about women with money. Our culture holds up images of scary rich women to keep us afraid of what will happen to us if we have money. Think about Disney villainesses—Cruella de Vil, Ursula, Maleficent. Powerful, wealthy, ambitious women who end up alone and reviled, punished for their hunger and their refusal to be small.

We’ve internalized this story. We’re terrified of becoming rich women who end up abandoned, hated, exiled.

But here’s the truth: poor women get abandoned and exiled in their vulnerable years too.

Actually, poor women are MORE likely to be abandoned, MORE likely to be abused, MORE likely to die alone in terrible circumstances.

The variable that changes isn’t wealth or poverty. The variable is woman.

Women without resources get abandoned. Women with resources get abandoned. The difference is that women with resources have options.

Gloria could have ended up far worse off. But she had a body of work that had value, a name that meant something, and a friend who helped her leverage it all.

We got lucky too—lucky that I’d been building a business that gave us enough flexibility to respond when the crisis hit.

So that’s why I’m not just earning anymore. I’m building. I’m creating intellectual property—courses, frameworks, this essay, a book. Work that exists beyond me, that can be leveraged, that creates options.

Because when crisis comes again—and it will come, because we are women in a world that does not catch us when we fall—I will have options.

Not only because I earned well. Because I own what I built.

Let’s make that your future, too.

Related Essays

For more on the themes in this essay:

My essays on ownership and building your work:

Pamela Anderson and the Art of Owning Yourself - How Pamela Anderson went from being exploited on Baywatch to owning her work on VIP
The Alchemist: When Your Higher Self Is a Baddie - How Qveen Herby transmuted small-town shame into witchy world-making and business building
Stop Being Harvested From: A Guide for Experts Ready to Own Their Ideas - About harvest energy, stolen time, and the politics of getting shit done

On platform building and self-promotion:

What Audre Lorde Knew About Self-Promotion That Most Culture Makers Don’t - Why waiting for recognition is a luxury you can’t afford
Beyond Viral: The Real Thought Leadership Strategy That Drives Personal Business Growth AND Collective Cultural Change - How prolific creators build platforms that shift cultural conversations while turning knowledge into profitable businesses

On Miss Daphne and why she matters:

Women, Money, Miss Daphne and My Big Why - The full story of my mother-in-law and why her situation should never have happened

Footnotes

¹ Gloria Steinem was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1986 at age 52. She underwent surgery (lumpectomy) and radiation treatment, which were successful. Sources: SurvivorNet, “When Feminist Icon Gloria Steinem Was Diagnosed With Breast Cancer in the 80s,” October 2, 2019; History.com, “Gloria Steinem,” June 24, 2025; Wikipedia, “Gloria Steinem.”

² Gloria Steinem quoted in HBO documentary and various interviews reflecting on how her cancer diagnosis made her “more conscious of time.” Source: Biography.com, “Celebrities Who Have Faced Breast Cancer,” October 16, 2023.

³ The quotes about Gloria Steinem’s financial situation come from Elizabeth Mehren’s reporting for the LA Times, circa 1991-1992, coinciding with Steinem’s book deal for Revolution from Within: A Book of Self-Esteem. Multiple sources confirm this was when Steinem, at age 53 (shortly after her cancer diagnosis), secured the $1.2 million advance after Letty Cottin Pogrebin helped her recognize she had no retirement savings despite decades of activism and publishing work. The exact publication details of the original LA Times article are difficult to verify online, but the story and quotes have been widely referenced in biographical sources about Steinem.

⁴ Gloria Steinem. Revolution from Within: A Book of Self-Esteem. Boston: Little, Brown, 1992. This book deal was secured after Letty Cottin Pogrebin and Steinem recognized the precariousness of Steinem’s financial situation following her cancer diagnosis. The $1.2 million advance represented a significant shift in Steinem’s ability to secure her financial future. After her cancer scare and financial awakening, Steinem also sold Ms. Magazine in 1988, acknowledging she should have done it earlier as the burden of fundraising had become overwhelming. Source: Encyclopedia.com, “Steinem, Gloria (1934—).”

⁵ Pamela Anderson served as executive producer on 77 episodes of VIP from 1998 to 2002. During her Baywatch years, she earned up to $300,000 per episode but had no ownership stake, while co-star David Hasselhoff made more and owned equity. International broadcasters had “Pamela clauses” requiring episodes featuring Anderson specifically, and a C.J. Parker Barbie based on her likeness became a bestseller, yet she received no licensing revenue. Anderson later said: “The producers of ‘Baywatch’ made a fortune. I just didn’t have the representation back then.” On VIP, she moved from talent to owner. Oprah Winfrey made a similar move in October 1988 when Harpo Productions assumed ownership of “The Oprah Winfrey Show,” making her the first woman to own and produce her own talk show. She invested $16 million to build a production studio and owned 80% of Harpo Media. She also trademarked her name—”OPRAH” is registered intellectual property of Harpo, Inc. Kathy Ireland turned down a spokesperson deal for a sock line to demand ownership instead, a decision that led to building a company valued at $4.1 billion. For independent platform builders, “going pro” takes different forms: Kelly Diels grew her company from barely six figures to many times that over five years while building out more than 30 courses as intellectual property assets and completing a book (forthcoming), demonstrating how systematic IP development and consistent platform building creates sustainable revenue growth. Sources: Kelly Diels, “Pamela Anderson and the Art of Owning Yourself,” House of Cultural Influence, October 14, 2025; Instagram reel commentary, January 2025.

⁶ Taylor Swift became a billionaire in May 2024 during the European leg of her Eras Tour, with a net worth now estimated between $1.6-2 billion. Forbes reports she became “the first musician to make the billionaire ranking primarily based on her songs and performances.” Her Eras Tour generated over $2 billion in ticket sales, becoming the highest-grossing concert tour of all time. In May 2025, Swift purchased back the masters to her original six albums from Shamrock Capital. Sources: Celebrity Net Worth, “Taylor Swift Net Worth,” August 26, 2025; TIME, “Taylor Swift’s Net Worth: How the Eras Tour Changed It All,” October 6, 2024; Parade, “Taylor Swift Net Worth,” September 25, 2025; Finance Monthly, “Taylor Swift’s Net Worth Soars to $1.6 Billion in 2025,” July 24, 2025.

⁷ Reese Witherspoon sold Hello Sunshine to Blackstone for $900 million in August 2021, retaining 18% ownership. Her net worth is estimated at $400-450 million as of 2025. Witherspoon revealed at Hello Sunshine’s Shine Away event in October 2024 that despite producing hits like Wild, Gone Girl, and Big Little Lies that made $600 million at the box office, “I had four employees, and I couldn’t keep the lights on.” She described asking her CEO Sarah Harden “the dumbest questions you can possibly imagine” to learn business fundamentals, saying “that vulnerability I think is what led to our success.” Sources: Parade, “Reese Witherspoon Net Worth 2025,” September 15, 2025; Celebrity Net Worth, “Reese Witherspoon Net Worth,” August 16, 2024; Finance Monthly, “Reese Witherspoon’s Net Worth in 2025,” May 27, 2025; The Hollywood Reporter, “Reese Witherspoon, Lauren Neustadter on Hello Sunshine Sale,” September 30, 2022.

⁸ Rihanna’s net worth is estimated at $1.4 billion as of 2025, though Forbes reports it dropped by $400 million (29%) from 2024 due to flat sales at Fenty Beauty and challenges including the departure of Savage X Fenty’s CEO in August 2024. She owns 50% of Fenty Beauty (valued at approximately $2.8 billion) and 30% of Savage X Fenty. Forbes notes she became “the first musician to reach billionaire status purely through music and touring” before pivoting to beauty and fashion. Sources: Celebrity Net Worth, “Rihanna Net Worth,” June 3, 2025; Forbes, “America’s Richest Self-Made Women 2025”; World Music Views, “Rihanna’s Net Worth Falls By $400 Million,” June 3, 2025; Vibe, “Rihanna’s Net Worth Reportedly Falls By Nearly 30 Percent,” June 4, 2025; MoneyWeek, “What is Rihanna’s net worth?” July 16, 2025.

⁹ Shonda Rhimes signed an exclusive production deal with Netflix in August 2017, initially valued at approximately $100-150 million over four years, after Grey’s Anatomy had generated over $2 billion in revenue for ABC. In July 2021, following the massive success of Bridgerton (which became one of Netflix’s most-watched series with 82 million households viewing in its first 28 days), Netflix expanded and renewed Rhimes’s deal for an estimated $300-400 million over five years. The expanded deal includes rights for merchandising, gaming, live events, and film production, positioning Rhimes alongside Ryan Murphy and Greg Berlanti as one of the highest-paid producers in television. Sources: The Hollywood Reporter, “Inside Shonda Rhimes’ Second Netflix Deal,” August 6, 2021; Celebrity Net Worth, “Shonda Rhimes Net Worth,” August 27, 2024; TheWrap, “Netflix Spent Big Bucks for Producers Ryan Murphy and Shonda Rhimes,” October 25, 2022; A Hot Set, “Industry Insider: Shonda Rhimes and Her $450 Deal With Netflix,” February 29, 2024.

¹⁰ Ava DuVernay’s net worth is estimated at $60 million as of 2024. She secured a $100 million deal with Warner Bros. in 2018 for her company Forward Movement to produce film and TV content. DuVernay founded ARRAY (originally African-American Film Festival Releasing Movement) in 2010 to amplify work by women and people of color in the film industry. She became the first Black woman to receive the BAFTA award for Best Director in 2019. Sources: Hot New Hip Hop, “Ava DuVernay Net Worth 2024,” March 11, 2024; Mabumbe, “Ava DuVernay: Age, Net Worth, Family & Career Highlights,” January 28, 2025; PennBook Center, “Ava DuVernay Net Worth 2024.”

¹¹ Issa Rae’s net worth is estimated at $20 million as of 2024. Her production company Hoorae signed a multi-year deal with WarnerMedia in 2021 worth $40 million for developing new shows. She founded Hoorae Media in 2020 to develop film, TV, digital content, and music. Rae co-founded natural haircare brand Sienna Naturals, invested in Streamlytics (a data company helping people of color control their digital data), and launched Viarae prosecco with E.&J. Gallo Winery in 2023. She told Forbes in 2025: “It happened organically, and it happened because these were things that we were all already doing. For me, it was just about formalizing it and building intention around it.” Sources: 21Ninety, “From ‘Awkward Black Girl’ to Mogul: Inside Issa Rae’s $20M Net Worth and Business Empire,” July 16, 2025; Celebrity Net Worth, “Issa Rae Net Worth,” August 27, 2024; Yahoo Entertainment, “From ‘Awkward Black Girl’ to Mogul,” July 16, 2025.

#WeAreTheCultureMakers