Anaya Birla, 23 years old, is a singer, songwriter, entrepreneur, and mental health advocate. She studied economics and management at Oxford University. Her first venture into entrepreneurship was at only 17, when she founded her own microfinance company to fund work by female entrepreneurs in rural India. She is involved in so many different areas not just as hobbies, but as an entrepreneur. One of her ventures that has particularly stood out to me, however, is her mental health advocacy platform, MPowerMinds. Anaya wanted to end the stigma surrounding mental health at her college, and in her home in India, where mental health problems are severely misunderstood and often swept under the rug. As someone struggling with mental illness herself, she has a unique perspective on the problem she’s pursuing. I have always been passionate about advocating for mental illness and I want to use my entrepreneurship knowledge to help people who are struggling.

Rosanna Pansino is a baker and YouTuber with a huge following and brand. She started as an actress making YouTube videos on the side, but when her agent made her choose between professions, she picked YouTube. She now has a cookbook, almost 11 million subscribers, and over 2 billion views on her videos. I appreciate Rosanna not only because we share the same passions, but as an entrepreneur; I admire the risks she’s taken in her business and the fact that even after all the growth her brand has done she’s still so hands on. She invested her entire life savings into starting her channel, and it has more than paid off. She has a small team made up of almost all family members, and running a business I’m passionate about with people I love would be a dream for me.