Plus, big leadership changes at a big cheese company |
If you’ve been watching this year’s U.S. Open, you’ll know that four-time major champion Naomi Osaka has reached her first Grand Slam semifinal since becoming a mother. After her 6-4, 7-6(3) victory over Czech 11th seed Karolina Muchova in Wednesday’s quarterfinal, Osaka—who struggled with consistency in her game following the 2023 birth of her daughter Shai—said that she’s “really inspired by all the moms on tour.”
Osaka has also been open, in post-match interviews and in a new documentary about her postpartum career, about how she’s felt like she’s “not good enough [or] losing a race in some weird sort of way.” But she’s also said that she sees this time as a chance not for a “comeback,” but to become even stronger. “A comeback doesn’t give you any room to grow,” Osaka says in the documentary. “You’re limited to come back into what you exactly were before. I want to be a different person and I want to be a better person.”
As ForbesWomen contributor Christine Michel Carter writes in her piece about the documentary, “Osaka’s story shows that motherhood is not a detour from ambition but a redefinition of it. By sharing her struggles with postpartum depression and showing up on tennis’ biggest stages, she reframes what resilience looks like for working mothers everywhere.”
While Osaka said Wednesday that her quarterfinal victory was a “weight” off her shoulders, she has little time to rest and reflect on this resilience: She’ll face Amanda Anisimova tonight at Arthur Ashe stadium.
Cheers!
Maggie |
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| After a decade of tracking the top companies in cloud computing, one thing is certain: Artificial intelligence has taken over. Generative AI’s fingerprints are all over this year’s Cloud 100 list, from model-training frontier labs to companies in health, law, customer service and more — all trying to remake themselves in the image of AI. As with other tech-focused lists, men dominate the rankings, but among the female-led companies on the 2025 list are Canva (whose CEO and cofounder is Melanie Perkins) and Papaya Global, whose CEO and cofounder is Eynat Guez, the first female CEO to lead a unicorn tech startup in Israel. |
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ICYMI: Stories From The Week |
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On Tuesday Vogue announced that Chloe Malle will take the reigns as its new Head of Editorial Content. Malle, the daughter of Candice Bergen and French filmmaker Louis Malle, is a well-known Vogue insider, having joined in 2011 as a social editor before being promoted to contributing editor in 2016; most recently, she was the editor of Vogue.com. Malle faces a fickle landscape, writes ForbesWomen contributor Gemma Allen: “She must guide Vogue from its print-soaked legacy into a digital era defined by TikTok trends, influencer microcultures, and shrinking attention spans, in an economy where attention is the survivalist currency.”
A major transition has taken place at the world’s largest mozzarella maker, Denver-based Leprino, following the recent death of reclusive billionaire James Leprino at 87. Leprino’s daughters and longtime board directors Terry Leprino, 65, and Gina Vecchiarelli, 62, are now the main owners of the $3.6 billion (estimated annual revenue) cheese business, which manufactures and sells more than 1 billion pounds of cheese annually and supplies cheese to Domino’s, Pizza Hut, Papa John’s and other pizza brands.
Shares of American Eagle soared as trading opened Thursday after the retailer boasted the success of its controversial ads featuring Sydney Sweeney while reporting second-quarter earnings that surpassed Wall Street’s expectations. CEO Jay Schottenstein said in a statement the company was “fueled” by the success of recent marketing campaigns with Sweeney, including an “uptick in customer awareness, engagement and comparable sales.” (Ed. note: The rebuttal ad from Gap featuring girlgroup Katseye and killer choreo from Robbie Blue is… worth your time.)
In a summer without a clear "song of the summer" breakout hit, TikTok has declared a 10-year-old pop track from English singer-songwriter Jess Glynne as the title holder thanks to the "Jet2holiday" trend on the app that took off in June. TikTok said Thursday that "Hold My Hand" has been used over 9 million times on videos that have garnered 80 billion views. (And if you’ve missed the boat on this trend, fear not: we’ve got you covered with this explainer.)
Speaking of trusted Forbes explainers and coverage… if you’ll forgive this bit of company promotion, we wanted to share with you a new way you can ensure Forbes stories are at the top of your Google search results. The web giant recently introduced a new feature called Preferred Sources, which lets you customize your top stories with publishers you trust and enjoy. Here’s how to make to make Forbes one of your preferred sources on Google! |
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| | A celebrity seen wearing a certain designer or piece of jewelry has always been a tacit endorsement of that company’s brand, and especially for a smaller business, it can be a serious boost. Naomi Osaka’s bedazzled versions of a popular toy drove 50% more Instagram followers to the studio that created them. What toy was it? | | A. | Pokémon cards | | B. | Labubus | | C. | Funko Pops | | D. | Tennis player Barbie |
| | Check if you got it right here. |
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| Join today’s most influential women at the 2025 Forbes Power Women’s Summit on September 10. This year’s event will feature Sara Blakely, the founder of Spanx & Sneex, Susie Wolff, managing director of F1 Academy, Lucy Guo, founder and CEO of Passes, and more! Be in the room where leaders are shaping the future of business, culture and innovation. Learn more here. |
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