100 Women We Love 2015

We are thrilled to present this year’s 100 Women We Love—an incredibly diverse group of out entertainers, athletes, artists, activists, business leaders and elected officials.

LAUREN AADLAND

Working in studio production in Los Angeles, Lauren Aadland realized she wanted to be a field videographer. So she quit her job, and took off for Europe with her best friend Christina Bly. Little did she know she´d be spearheading a whole genre. Before their travels, the pair browsed YouTube for inspiration. “We couldn´t find any LGBT travel shows, and definitely nothing made for and by women,” she says. What they did find online either lacked imagination or was over-sexualized, she says. “We couldn´t believe that no one in the community was putting out travel-driven video content, so we decided to fill that niche.” The friends backpacked through European cities, and their efforts resulted in 14 episodes of their very own series. Now in plans to film a fourth and fifth season, “Button and Bly´s Travel Show” gets thousands of hits every episode. Aadland attributes its success to being so specific. Primetime sitcoms, for example, need to be as broad as possible, but on the Internet, “if you abide by that same mentality, you become lost in cyberspace, unsearchable, and it´s unlikely that you will ever be found by your audience.” By focusing on LGBT travel, the show found its audience. “In other words, the show is seeing success because we are out lesbians,” she says. “That´s huge.” -SJ


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