What, like it's hard to be inspired by Reese Witherspoon?
Ahead of her company Hello Sunshine's third annual Shine Away event in Los Angeles Oct. 11 and 12, the Big Little Lies star explained why it's so important to her to help mentor the next generation of young women in Hollywood.
"Mentorship is everything," Witherspoon, 49, exclusively told E! News at a welcome event in West Hollywood Oct. 10. "I just had lunch with my mentor yesterday, who helped me so much in my 20s. She really guided me and gave me great advice about choices I was gonna make in my career, but also my personal life."
"It's important for women to find ways to connect in real life and learn from each other," she continued, "really gather those best practices, those critical words of wisdom that can really guide you."
And, as the Legally Blonde actress put it, "Hopefully, that's what we're going to be doing all weekend long."
Indeed, that began at the Oct. 10 kickoff event, when Witherspoon celebrated her five new mentees in the Hello Sunshine Collective, her company's talent incubator.
"Hello Sunshine was never just about me," she explained. "It was always about passing the microphone or shining a light on another woman and her accomplishments. So, the Collective is an extension of that."
It's a mission she hopes would make her younger self proud.
"I think my younger self would be blown away," Witherspoon shared. "She'd be astounded at the community that Hello Sunshine has become. I was always looking for connection with other people and celebrating my friends growing up. I think women are so interesting, so my natural curiosity has gotten me to this place."
This year, the Hello Sunshine Collective brought on Off the Shelf podcast host Morgann Book, record-setting skateboarder Brooke Johnson, Party Animals baseball player Ashton Lansdell, Angel City FC soccer player Ali Riley and talk show host Dai Time, as announced at the event sponsored by World of Hyatt and Sol De Janeiro.
And they are ready to shine their light back.
"I have been following Reese's Book Club and reading all of those books for so long," Book told E!. "To be a part of something that empowers these female voices—and empowers the romance genre sometimes—is so important to me as a creator and as a reader."
Likewise, Johnson has been a huge fan for years, even applying to play Elle Woods in the Legally Blonde TV series for a chance to get noticed by the Collective—but she ended up getting recruited for another accomplishment altogether.
"It just took me skating across the whole country to do that, and I'm OK with that, because that was the goal," she quipped of "manifesting" her dream to work with Hello Sunshine. "It means the world. It means that I've made it into the room that I want to be in, which, as a woman, typically, is really hard to do."
For Lansdell, there's a similar feeling of gratitude for finding a new community of women.
"I grew up being the only girl on a baseball team my whole life, so I've always had that little chip on my shoulder of not letting people tell me what I need to do or what I should do," the athlete shared, "and just believing in myself and following my heart and following my dreams and turning my dreams into a reality."
And for Time—who noted she's inspired by Witherspoon "because she's the definition of female empowerment"—that starts this weekend as a speaker on the Shine Away panel called "Help Them Grow, Watch Them Glow: Raising the Next Generation."
"I'm a huge nerd, and I'm always just working on bettering my platform and making it a safe space for Gen Z, empowering my peers, and also just having a little bit of fun," she explained. "I feel like everyone just needs a little daily dose of Gen Z. So, I hope that I can bring that to Shine Away this weekend."
The third annual Shine Away, connected by AT&T, will bring women together across different fields on the Universal Studios Lot Oct. 11 and 12, with speakers including Chrissy Teigen, Brittany Snow, Mariska Hargitay, Olivia Culpo, Maren Morris and Lilly Singh.
"We get some of the greatest female entrepreneurs, experts and talent to come and talk about their passions," Witherspoon told E!. "So much of our lives is taken over by scrolling and the internet, and it's an opportunity to get off your phone and into your real life and have a little inspiration."