[Intro Music: “Hang in there baby” by Bridgit Mendler]
31 YEAR OLD FORMER DISNEY ACTRESS BRIDGIT MENDLER, WHO IS BEST KNOWN FOR HER ROLE AS TEDDY DUNCAN IN GOOD LUCK CHARLIE, ANNOUNCED ON X (FORMERLY TWITTER) THAT SHE’S LAUNCHING A SATELLITE DATA STARTUP CALLED NORTHWOOD SPACE.
AMELIA DONHAUSER AND SARAH THORNTON HAVE THE STORY.
SINCE THE END OF GOOD LUCK CHARLIE IN 2014, MENDLER HAS BEEN KEEPING BUSY WITH A VARIETY OF PROJECTS OUTSIDE OF ACTING. SHE GRADUATED FROM THE UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA IN 2016, AND A YEAR LATER, SHE BEGAN WORKING AT THE MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY MEDIA LAB. MENDLER THEN BEGAN A DOCTORATE AT MIT IN 2020 AND ENROLLED IN HARVARD LAW SCHOOL.
WE ASKED NORTHWESTERN STUDENTS TO GIVE THEIR OPINION ON MENDLER’S, NOW TIK TOK VIRAL, CAREER PATH.
[OWEN LUBBEN]: I haven’t thought about Bridget Mendler probably since I was 14…Ever since coming to Northwestern or being in high school, Bridgit Mendler, I feel like I was just totally out of my life.
THAT WAS OWEN LUBBEN, MCCORMICK SENIOR STUDYING MECHANICAL ENGINEERING, WHO HE SAYS HAS, LIKE MANY, DONE A DEEP DIVE INTO MENDLER’S LINKEDIN PAGE AS WELL AS HER STARTUP.
[OL]: My roommate, a couple of weeks ago, was like ‘oh, have you seen Bridgit Mendler [that] went to Harvard or something like she’s doing crazy things these days.’…I saw one TikTok where the comparison was that the only person doing more than her at 30 was the person who had multiple PhDs and was an astronaut.
HE BELIEVES THAT HER ACCOMPLISHMENTS ARE IMPRESSIVE BY THEMSELVES, BUT HER YOUNG AGE MAKES IT EVEN MORE EXTRAORDINARY.
[OL]: Other people have found success in academia or through those avenues and then also like fame in the media, like kind of bridging those. But usually those people are 40, 50, 60. Right? It takes many, many years to accomplish both those things.
MENDLER IS NOT THE ONLY CELEBRITY TO VENTURE INTO A DIFFERENT PROFESSION. IN 2019, KIM KARDASHIAN ANNOUNCED SHE WAS TAKING THE BAR EXAM. IN 2023, TRAVIS SCOTT ANNOUNCED IN A GQ ARTICLE THAT HE WAS GOING TO STUDY ARCHITECTURE AT HARVARD UNIVERSITY. SO WHAT MAKES MENDLER’S STARTUP DIFFERENT?
[OL]: I think to the extent it doesn’t feel like a gimmick. When I hear Travis Scott’s going to architecture school, it’s like, yeah, he has this passion for architecture but he has a lot of money and access to things to do that sort of thing. And [he has] the time to find the training to be able to get into school and then also do it at whatever age.
ON THE OTHER HAND, LUBBEN SAYS HE BELIEVES MENDLER’S NEW CAREER PATH WOULD HAVE HAPPENED EVEN WITHOUT HER DISNEY FAME.
[OL]: It’s not just her creating some sort of side project. I was just on their website and they have tons of venture capital investors. She has two other partners on the project, I believe, also from MIT. It sounds like a C suite of a startup of any MIT startup, Northwestern startup, any of these like space startups you’re hearing about. It’s just that this one happens to also include a Disney child.
RACHEL DEANGULO, WEINBERG SENIOR, HAS SOME THOUGHTS ON WHERE MENDLER’S CAREER PATH HAS TAKEN HER…
[RACHEL DEANGULO]: I mean, honestly, I think that her career trajectory is a really cool example of just letting your interests guide your path rather than always trying to do what you’re supposed to do. I’m obviously not inside her mind, but I’d be willing to bet that when she was studying anthropology at USC, she would not have anticipated being where she is today.
LUBBEN ALSO BELIEVES MENDLER CAN USE HER FOLLOWING FROM THE DISNEY CHANNEL TO CREATE AWARENESS ABOUT HER STARTUP.
[OL]: I think the future is just in her and her company, maybe utilizing this past fame in a fairly utilitarian way. Not necessarily fame, but just advertising about their company and really get the message out about what they’re trying to do.
AS A MECHANICAL ENGINEER, LUBBEN ALSO WANTS TO LEARN MORE ABOUT HER STARTUP.
[OL]: For me as a mechanical engineer, [it’s] super interesting, working on a project that has to do with space infrastructure in the mechanical engineering department. So, I definitely want to look more into this company and see what kind of avenue they’re taking.
FOR NOW, WE’LL SEE WHERE MENDLER’S STARTUP GOES, BUT IT’S PRETTY SAFE TO SAY IT SEEMS LIKE HER DISNEY CAREER IS IN THE PAST.
[OL]: I don’t foresee her really getting back into acting or music that doesn’t seem like her path.
FOR WNUR NEWS, I’M AMELIA DONHAUSER AND I’M SARAH THORNTON
[Outro Music: “Hurricane” by Bridget Mendler]
