© 2026 ABC News

Ava Duvernay“Work without permission,” the director said in a video posted on Twitter. “So many of us work from a permission-based place, and we don’t even know it. We are waiting for someone to say it’s OK, waiting for someone to give us the greenlight, give us money, tell us how to do it, shepherd us through and if you're waiting for that, some people get lucky, but most of us have to do it for ourselves.\"

Meryl Streep“For young women, I would say, don’t worry so much about your weight. Girls spend way too much time thinking about that, and there are better things,\" she told Indianapolis Monthly in 2014 when asked to give young performers advice. \"For young men, and women, too, what makes you different or weird, that’s your strength. Everyone tries to look a cookie-cutter kind of way, and actually the people who look different are the ones who get picked up. I used to hate my nose. Now, I don’t.”

\"PHOTO:
Photo by Matt Petit/A.M.P.A.S via Getty Images, FILE
PHOTO: Nicole Kidman backstage at the 90th Annual Academy Awards at the Dolby Theatre on March 4, 2018 in Hollywood, Calif.
>

Nicole Kidman“Particularly for a young girl, it’s ‘Take care of yourself, make sure you are protected, don’t let anyone break your spirit and be yourself,'\" Kidman told the Press Association last year, according to InStyle. \"So much of the time we model ourselves and our identities on what we see, and actually finding who you are and what you want to say and what your voice is, is one of the hardest things to do, but one of the most important things to do.\"

Kate Hudson\"Your friends' success is as important as your own, and we need each other to cheer-lead each other,\" the actress told Vanity Fair last year. \"Jessica [Alba] is someone, we talk a lot about business, because our businesses have grown very quickly and very fast. It was a learning curve for both of us. Sometimes it’s sharing experiences, like, 'Did you ever think we’d be in this position?' She had an idea and it came to fruition and grew so fast—and same with me. We do talk about the learning curve and how fast we had to rise to that challenge.”

Jessica ChastainThe actress told Marie Claire last year that the best career advice she'd ever received was \"to not follow the money, but to follow the education of projects.\"

Priyanka Chopra“I think to be able to be a producer or director, or any other vocation you might want to take on, it’ll be a fight, and you’ve got to not be afraid of it,\" she told Buzzfeed last year. \"There’ll be people who’ll want to pull you down, there’ll be people who say things about you that may not be true at all just so you feel small, so you don’t become the best that you are, but you just have to dust off your detractors and keep going. I think that’s very important for any woman.\"

","canonicalUrl":"https://abcnews.com/GMA/Culture/international-womens-day-21-female-stars-best-life/story?id=53613153","legacySlug":"/culture/story/international-womens-day-21-female-stars-best-life-53613153","noIndexNoFollow":false},"publishTime":"20:40","publishDate":"03-08-2018","updatedTime":"23:17","updatedDate":"03-08-2018","socialImage":{"alt":"Oprah Winfrey accepts the 2018 Cecil B. DeMille Award during the 75th Annual Golden Globe Awards on Jan. 7, 2018 in Beverly Hills, Calif.","credit":"Paul Drinkwater/NBCUniversal via Getty Images","ratio":"16x9","url":"https://s.abcnews.com/images/Entertainment/oprah-golden-globes-02-gty-jc-180308_16x9_1600.jpg","width":992,"height":558},"datePublished":"3/8/2018 20:40:00 GMT","video":{"live":false,"id":53613153,"headline":"21 female stars' best life and career advice","mediaAssetTitle":"ADVICE_WOMEN_WOMENS_DAY_180308","description":"ABC News compiled the best advice the some of Hollywood's biggest female stars.","duration":"0:49","posterImg":{"url":"https://s.abcnews.com/images/GMA/default-img-undefined.png","width":608,"height":342},"video":{"feed":"https://service-pkgabcnews.akamaized.net/opp/hls/abcnews/2017/02/170227_vod_orig_womensdayMIX_,500,800,1200,1800,2500,3200,4500,.mp4.csmil/playlist.m3u8"},"playlist":["53548444","53614656","45784426"]},"relatedItems":[{"contentType":"story","date":"March 7, 2018","headline":"Chelsea Clinton's message to women for International Women's Day ","section":"culture","slug":"/culture/story/chelsea-clintons-message-women-international-womens-day-53548444","id":53548444,"image":{"alt":"Chelsea Clinton's message to women for International Women's Day ","url":"https://s.abcnews.com/images/Entertainment/chelsea-clinton-abc-ml-180306_4x3t_240.jpg","credit":"Paula Lobo/ABC","ratio":"1x1"}},{"contentType":"story","date":"March 8, 2018","headline":"How celebs are celebrating International Women's Day","section":"culture","slug":"/culture/story/celebs-celebrating-international-womens-day-53614656","id":53614656,"image":{"alt":"How celebs are celebrating International Women's Day","url":"https://s.abcnews.com/images/Entertainment/rose-mcgowan-asia-argento-womens-day-rome-ap-jc-180308_4x3t_240.jpg","credit":"Alessandra Tarantino/AP","ratio":"1x1"}},{"contentType":"video","date":"February 27, 2017","headline":"The history of International Women's Day","section":"news","slug":"/video/45784426","id":45784426,"image":{"alt":"The history of International Women's Day","url":"https://s.abcnews.com/images/International/170227_vod_orig_womensdayMIX_4x5_240.jpg","credit":"Getty","ratio":"1x1"}}],"relatedContentSection":"news","schemaContent":{"name":"21 female stars' best life and career advice","description":"ABC News compiled the best advice the some of Hollywood's biggest female stars.","duration":"0:49","uploadDate":"03-08-2018","publication":"03-08-2018","images":"https://s.abcnews.com/images/GMA/default-img-undefined.png","url":"https://service-pkgabcnews.akamaized.net/opp/hls/abcnews/2017/02/170227_vod_orig_womensdayMIX_,500,800,1200,1800,2500,3200,4500,.mp4.csmil/playlist.m3u8","contentUrl":"https://service-pkgabcnews.akamaized.net/opp/hls/abcnews/2017/02/170227_vod_orig_womensdayMIX_,500,800,1200,1800,2500,3200,4500,.mp4.csmil/playlist.m3u8","link":"https://www.goodmorningamerica.com/culture/story/international-womens-day-21-female-stars-best-life-53613153"}},"playlist":[{"id":"134959102","contentType":"story","section":"news"},{"id":"134926667","contentType":"story","section":"news"},{"id":"134910526","contentType":"story","section":"news"},{"id":"134846473","contentType":"story","section":"news"},{"id":"134848966","contentType":"story","section":"news"},{"id":"134761751","contentType":"story","section":"news"},{"id":"134787741","contentType":"story","section":"news"},{"id":"134782596","contentType":"story","section":"news"},{"id":"134741027","contentType":"story","section":"news"},{"id":"134751717","contentType":"story","section":"news"},{"id":"134708317","contentType":"story","section":"news"},{"id":"134548164","contentType":"story","section":"news"},{"id":"134542058","contentType":"story","section":"news"},{"id":"134416060","contentType":"story","section":"news"},{"id":"134443994","contentType":"story","section":"news"},{"id":"134406623","contentType":"story","section":"news"},{"id":"134358132","contentType":"story","section":"news"},{"id":"134353508","contentType":"story","section":"news"},{"id":"134335187","contentType":"story","section":"news"},{"id":"134334942","contentType":"story","section":"news"}],"kvps":{"pgtyp":"article","lang":"en","sp":"goodmorningamerica","programmatic":"true","bundleId":"com.abcnews"}},"analytics":{"accountID":"wdgnewwdgnewgmaweb","ns":"gma","pageName":"gma:culture:video","pageType":"video","globalSpecVersion":"v1.08","siteDifferentiator":"gma:site","tagID":"g_page01","userABCookie":"0","section":"culture","title":"21 female stars' best life and career advice","pubTime":"15:40","pubDate":"03-08-2018","modTime":"18:17","modDate":"03-08-2018","taxonomyTags":"none","id":53613153,"editorialOtherSubjects":"","wordCount":"none","columns":"none","authors":"","authorsUnit":"none","authorsBureau":"none","subBrand":"Good Morning America","provider":"Good Morning America","videoName":"21 female stars' best life and career advice","mediaAssetTitle":"ADVICE_WOMEN_WOMENS_DAY_180308","videoId":53613153,"mediaOnPage":"video","legacySlug":"/culture/story/international-womens-day-21-female-stars-best-life-53613153"},"taboola":{}},"request":{"headers":{},"httpVersion":"1.1","method":"GET","url":"/video/53613153","vary":{"host":"www.goodmorningamerica.com","cached":true,"path":"/video/53613153","forwarded-proto":"https","device":"desktop","userab":"0"}},"viewport":{"width":1260,"height":0},"user":{}};