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"You&amp;#x27;d have to be hiding underground to have missed the big news about Marissa Mayer this week (CEO of Yahoo! Pregnant! Just beyond in every way!). But now that Mayer is firmly on our radar, I&amp;#x27;d like to take a moment to divert your attention to someone who&amp;#x27;s flying a bit lower than Mayer, but who has the potential to be every bit as big-deal one day. Sonia Chokshi is the Cofounder and Chief Content Officer of Kip Solutions, a start-up that uses social media to affect major global change. Oh, and did I mention that she&amp;amp;#8217;s only 19?That&amp;amp;#8217;s no typo--Chokshi, a Tampa, FL native, is a rising junior at Tufts University. She&amp;#x27;s also the only girl at Kip Solutions, which was named one of Inc. magazine&amp;#x27;s Coolest College Start-Ups 2012. And mind you, this eight-months-so-far gig is no summer fling for Chokshi, who works through the school year, too (I know--whoa!). Chokshi&amp;amp;#8217;s works directly with Kip Solutions&amp;amp;#8217; clients, helping them identify and connect with the right people so they can tackle, in her words, &amp;amp;#8220;the world&amp;amp;#8217;s biggest issues.&amp;amp;#8221; How big, you ask? Poverty alleviation-big. Connecting farmers in Cameroon so they can sell more and waste less-big. Hey, it&amp;amp;#8217;s OK if you just tried to high-five your computer screen. I chatted with Chokshi to find out everything you must know rightthisverysecond about being a young woman entrepreneur--so let&amp;amp;#8217;s get down to business (pun pun pun). GLAMOUR: You do this over the school year, too--how exactly do you do that?! SONIA CHOKSHI: It&amp;amp;#8217;s actually not as stressful as you would think it is. [They&amp;amp;#8217;re] just completely different ways of engaging your brain. When I leave my schoolwork and I start doing Kip-work, it&amp;amp;#8217;s not like I&amp;amp;#8217;m doing more work--I&amp;amp;#8217;m refreshing myself. Kip is an interesting way of taking a break from school, and then school is kind of a break from doing Kip. GLAMOUR: Has being young been a help or a hindrance? SONIA CHOKSHI: I actually think it&amp;amp;#8217;s a help! Being young means you can make a lot of mistakes, and you have time to fix them. And also, people are a lot more understanding and willing to help. A lot of the people we&amp;amp;#8217;ve pitched to and come across and that have mentored us are like, &amp;amp;#8220;What&amp;amp;#8217;s really great about your organization is that it&amp;amp;#8217;s all young people who are really excited about&amp;amp;#133; creating social impact through social media.&amp;amp;#8221; And I think, also, the resources these days that are available for young entrepreneurs have shot up incredibly. GLAMOUR: Tell me about the inspiring women entrepreneurs we need to know! SONIA CHOKSHI: Jessica Jackley, who is one of the founders of Kiva--check out her TED Talk, it&amp;amp;#8217;s amazing. What I really admire about her is that she has struck that balance of being an entrepreneur and being a woman, and really harnessed the power of both to create a huge, huge impact around the world. Another woman entrepreneur who I really think is awesome is Kathleen Wright, and she is the founder of the Collaborative Group. She&amp;amp;#8217;s partnered with artisans&amp;amp;#133; around the world, and sources their products to brands in the United States. She&amp;amp;#8217;s also been able to really strike a balance between being an entrepreneur and being a woman. And both Kathleen and Jessica Jackley have kids. GLAMOUR: That brings us back to the Anne-Marie Slaughter debate! Do you think women can &amp;amp;#8220;have it all&amp;amp;#8221;? SONIA CHOKSHI: I think what&amp;amp;#8217;s really important in terms of trying to have it all is setting your own boundaries. At the beginning of this summer, I was going crazy. I was working nonstop, and I totally burnt out. And then I made a conscious decision to not work after 6 p.m.--which sometimes works, it&amp;#x27;s a little flexible--and I make the conscious decision to go spend time with my family in the suburbs every weekend, without fail. It&amp;amp;#8217;s not about achieving everything, it&amp;amp;#8217;s about achieving everything that you want--and you need to decide what those things are. The Kip Solutions team (from left to right): Tidus Coleman, Patrick Ip, Sonia Chokshi and Jim DAmico GLAMOUR: How do you go about starting a business, anyhow? SONIA CHOKSHI: The kind of clich&amp;amp;eacute; or typical answer to &amp;amp;#8220;How do I get involved&amp;amp;#8221; is &amp;amp;#8220;Just jump in.&amp;amp;#8221; But that can be really scary! Starting your own business or getting involved in a business is not something that you can just wake up one morning and decide you want to do. I think the first thing to do--and I say this time and time again--is find the things you&amp;amp;#8217;re most passionate about&amp;amp;#133; the productive things you&amp;amp;#8217;re doing to procrastinate. So, when you&amp;amp;#8217;re in school, and you&amp;amp;#8217;re like, &amp;amp;#8220;Omigosh, I&amp;amp;#8217;ve got this paper to do, but this work seems so much more cool; let me do that instead&amp;amp;#8221;--that&amp;amp;#8217;s something you&amp;amp;#8217;re really passionate about. So take those passions and find a way to apply those in a business role. And maybe you join a start-up at first--maybe you don&amp;#x27;t start your own start-up right away. Starting a business is really scary and it&amp;amp;#8217;s really rough. It&amp;amp;#8217;s not an easy journey. And if you&amp;amp;#8217;re not passionate about the things you&amp;amp;#8217;re working on--if you&amp;amp;#8217;re just doing it because you think it will be successful--you&amp;amp;#8217;re not going to be able to take it as far as you want. GLAMOUR: What&amp;amp;#8217;s it like being a woman in entrepreneurship, which is still largely a boys&amp;#x27; club? SONIA CHOKSHI: I&amp;amp;#8217;m with three guys on my team, and I also live with another male entrepreneur, so I&amp;amp;#8217;m literally surrounded by men--all the time. And I feel like this story is pretty similar across the board for entrepreneurship; there are a lot of men in the field, and it can be really intimidating. Women just need to get into entrepreneurship. Women can bring an art to business that men may or may not have--I&amp;#x27;m not going to discount men on that front! But I think the level of creativity that we have innately is something that business needs. And now for the mega-bonus, ladies: Chokshi wants to hear from you. Like, she straight-up instructed me to give out her email address. So hit her up with questions, feedback, advice, compliments regarding her adorable pixie cut (that last one might be my suggestion--it really is cute, though). What do you think about Sonia&amp;amp;#8217;s thoughts on having it all? What about her business advice? Are you interested in entrepreneurship? Would you ever start your own business? And if you&amp;amp;#8217;re too shy to email her (or even if you&amp;amp;#8217;re not), what questions do you have for Sonia? I&amp;amp;#8217;m dying to know! P.S. Let&amp;amp;#8217;s continue the inspiring women extravaganza! What the Women in Glamour Do After You Put Down the Issue (hint: awesome things!) and Nominate Your Hero: Women of the Year 2012 Readers&amp;amp;#8217; Choice Award. Photos: Alonso Nichols/Tufts University"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.glamour.com/inspired/blogs/the-conversation/2012/07/wait-this-world-changing-socia>