Hollywood has been known as a male-dominated industry since its start, but there’s no denying that women are taking over the entertainment industry in a way that has never been seen before.  Forbes recently released their list of The Most Powerful Women in Entertainment (which includes women who range from entertainers to major studio executives) and released a statement noting that the top eleven women on the list alone “have a combined social media imprint exceeding six billion followers and fans.”

Thanks to the multiple social media platforms these women use to interact with their fans across the world, women in entertainment have a combined social impact greater than some of the world’s leaders.

Though most of the women who made Forbes’ list are not millennials themselves, of the billions of fans and followers who look up to them it’s clear that millennials make up the largest percentage.  So what can these millennials (including myself) learn from the careers of these moguls — even if we have no plans to enter into the entertainment industry ourselves?

Aside from the obvious that the honored worked extremely hard in order to earn their places at the top of their fields (there are no “famous just for being famous” types on the list) I noticed a few key lessons from these women’s biographies which millennial women can apply to their own careers and lives.

1) Create your opportunities like Oprah, Ellen, and Sofia 

Many of the women given the title “powerful” took their job responsibilities to a new level, creating their own opportunities for themselves on their way to the top.  Oprah, who came in at number twelve on The World's 100 Most Powerful Women list, earned her spot not for simply having a successful television talk show, but for turning the success of that show into an entire empire built under her name.  Her empathetic interviewing skills and taste for human interest stories contributed to her success in the industry, but when she created her own television network, OWN, she established herself as an entrepreneur, which earned her a billionaire fortune and her title as a “powerful” woman.  Others on the list, including Ellen DeGeneres and Sofia Vergara, were recognized for this same reason.  Though they established success for themselves on their respective television shows, they impacted the world through their ability to take one success and multiply it by millions. Forbes’ states that these women, “smartly leveraged TV fame into […] opportunities.”

So what can millennial women learn from these examples?  Maybe that we should always be looking for new opportunities to grow in our careers, even after we’ve reached the point we once considered ultimate success.  Always looking to expand, thinking ahead of the game, and not seeing a stopping point to success are what Forbes’ women in entertainment learned to do, and are mindsets that can be applied to any career.  My opinion?  The most powerful thing you can do for your career is to take control of it.

Women who serve others and dedicate themselves to pressing causes are considered the most powerful

2) Make a difference like Angelina and Bonnie

Another important connection between the women on this list is their involvement in social activism, humanitarianism, and their advocacy for women’s rights.  Angelina Jolie, who came in at number fifty-four on The World's 100 Most Powerful Women list, is a prime example of this.  She has been a UNHCR Goodwill Ambassador for the past fourteen years, helping female refugees around the world on over forty field visits.  She was more recently recognized in the United States for her bravery in speaking out about her preventive double mastectomy, and her decision to have her ovaries and fallopian tubes removed in an effort to fight against cancer.  Despite her successful acting and directorial work, I would say that standing up for and encouraging women around the world and within her own country is probably what landed her the title of “powerful” woman (I mean, just a guess).  Bonnie Hammer, ranked number fifty-two for her job as NBCUniversal Cable’s Chairman, has brought in billions of dollars in revenue to the company, and is known as being one of the most successful chairmen to date—but she is also known for her work in pro-social movements.  She started a public service program intended to combat hate and discrimination and promote tolerance and acceptance called “Erase the Hate,” as well as a campaign called “Visions for Tomorrow” which aims “to spark America’s leading thinkers, organizations, and policymakers into searching for ways to solve society’s most pressing issues.”  On top of that, she has plans to attempt blurring gender lines on her cable networks after coming to the realization that much of the programming aired excludes men.  She is a prime example of someone who uses her professional success to impact the world in a positive way.

Now, we millennials don’t want to be selfish people—but sometimes the selfies get to our heads.  The fact that women who take the initiative to serve others and dedicate themselves to pressing causes are considered the most powerful is an important lesson for us.  We should look at these women not as heroes, but as examples.  Volunteering for a cause we care about shouldn’t be looked at as a distraction from the career we are trying to establish, but as one of the most important, beneficial, and lasting impacts we can make in our short time here on the planet.

From successful, business oriented career women to philanthropists changing lives, the most powerful women in entertainment are all worthy of their title.  A comment on Forbes’ article reads, “These powerful women make me feel powerful too.  If they have done it I too will do it.  Thank God for them.”  I like what the commenter implies; that the point of looking at lists like this one isn’t so that we can envy these women in admiration for achieving goals we can never hope to achieve ourselves, but instead so that we can be inspired by their work to achieve our own goals.  What did I learn from Forbes’ list?  No matter how big or small the scale, being a powerful woman is never outside my (or anyone’s) grasp.

We can be inspired by their work to achieve our own goals.