By Jessica Goodman, 21, reporting from Los Angeles on her favorite broadcast journalists
Getting ready for school in the mornings, middle school through high school, my brothers and I would watch the Today show. It made me want to become a journalist, and it made Katie Couric one of my role models. As a team, she and Matt Lauer were Olivia and Elliot on Law & Order: SVU to me.
I was there watching when Katie Couric left Today to become the first female network evening news anchor, and Meredith Viera took over for her. Now they are both stepping down—or up—from their top-of-the-spectrum jobs to pursue new things. It's like the news pros want to make news themselves.
These two women had dream jobs, or at least my idea of dream jobs. So their decisions to move on reminds me that dreams change from time to time; people change as well. And you can't always listen to other people or public opinion.
Like Katie Couric, girls need to continue to follow their dreams. Today, we get to experience fourth-wave feminism through the Internet. We've been so fortunate to be the first generation to see a woman run for president, the first woman Speaker of the House and the first woman solo evening news anchor.
Five years after Couric hit that milestone, she is surely bound for another. She recently came out with a book, The Best Advice I Ever Got: Lessons From Extraordinary Lives. It's a collection of first-hand stories from women (and men) we all look up to. It's about being brave enough to change your life to try the next thing, whatever you're compelled to do.
You might want to start Today.