Watch The First Public Appearance Of Jennifer Lee, Disney Animation’s New Chief Creative Officer

Jennifer Lee, the co-director and writer of Frozen, who recently replaced John Lasseter as chief creative officer of Walt Disney Animation Studios, has made her first public appearance in the new role.

In the video, Lee speaks about the new edition of the Walt Disney Company’s initiative #DreamBigPrincess, in which Disney will support 21 young women from around the world as they make digital shorts that tell the stories of inspiring female role models (Lee included among them).

For the program, each aspiring filmmaker will be paired with an inspirational interview subject spanning a diverse range of professions. The young women will capture the stories of these individuals, as well as pass along their advice for achieving success.

“Using the journeys of characters like Anna, Elsa, and Moana to inspire kids to dream big is at the very heart of what all of us at Disney do,” said Jennifer Lee in a press statement. “The #DreamBigPrincess series is the perfect extension of that vision, providing a powerful platform for the next generation of aspiring filmmakers to create content about the women who have inspired them.”

Each of the young women is being provided with an iPhone X and Apple’s Final Cut Pro X software running on a Macbook Pro. They will participate in a workshop that will teach them how to use the Apple products, as well as receive mentoring sessions from the female-led production company Summerjax and creative support from Disney artists. They will then return to their home countries to create their films, which will premiere on social media in October.

Disney will also donate to the UN Foundation’s Girl Up, a global leadership development initiative that positions girls to be leaders in the movement for gender equality. From October 10 through November 20, 2018, for each like or share of a video or photo with #DreamBigPrincess on Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter, Disney will donate one dollar to Girl Up (minimum donation: $500,000/maximum donation: $1 million).

This year’s program builds on last year’s DreamBigPrincess Global Photography series, which included the participation of 19 female photographers from 15 countries, and unlocked a $1 million donation to Girl Up in less than five days.