When you hear the name Bridgit Mendler, I bet you think of her time on the Disney Channel, starring in Good Luck Charlie or Lemonade Mouth. Or maybe you’re like me, and your memory stretches back to The Clique. A quick Google search of her name still pulls up results for “American actress and singer-songwriter,” but Bridgit Mendler isn’t just another childhood Disney Channel star.
Of course, the time she spent in the limelight is impressive, but since her TV and music days, she’s received multiple degrees from top institutions, become the CEO and co-founder of the satellite data startup, and claimed the proud title of wife and mother. I’m sorry, but when we think about where a lot of childhood Disney Channel stars are now, that’s not usually what we expect… and to us, that’s pretty damn inspiring.
We’ve been examining Mendler’s journey here at The Everygirl, and we can’t help but feel a renewed sense of ambition and possibility when we look at her professional and personal accomplishments. It reminds us that reinventing yourself is a positive and transformative decision that has no rules, limits, or deadlines. Ahead, we’re sharing all about her journey and why it’s made such an impact on how we view success.
You don’t have to stay in the same industry forever
Bridgit Mendler is known primarily for the role of Teddy Duncan on Disney’s Good Luck Charlie, but her IMDb details boast an expansive acting career. You can find her on General Hospital, Lemonade Mouth, The Wizards of Waverly Place, The Clique, Nashville, and, most recently, Merry Happy Whatever. But we can’t forget about her time in the music industry! She released her debut album Hello My Name Is… in 2011. From her on-screen roles to her music tours, the path for her entertainment career had been paved. In the good company of fellow Disney Channel A-list entertainers like Miley Cyrus and Zac Efron, we’re surprised she ever pivoted from the industry.
As someone deep in the entertainment industry myself, I’ve been told in job interviews that my skills won’t translate to other career paths, and it has kept my vision of possibility pretty limited. She’s blown that notion out of the water and has opened doors for fellow artists and non-artists alike. I’ve heard so many people say things to the effect of, “Well, I’ve already come this far in my job,” or “I’ve spent so much time working towards this career, I can’t change it up now.” I’ve thought of versions of those things myself.
A lot of us don’t even know how to get a new job in our field, much less how to branch out entirely. But here goes Bridgit Mendler, proudly reminding us that not only is it possible, but it can be the best decision you ever make.
All you need is the tenacity and drive to go after what interests you—even if it vastly differs from other’s perception of you.
The possibilities are endless if you’re passionate
Mendler once told USA Today, “I want to know something outside of what I do,” and after taking a glance at her educational background, it’s clear she knows a lot outside of acting and singing. When she started pursuing her education, she mentioned that she was going to “do one class at a time and see how that goes.” It clearly went well because Bridgit is about to get her JD at Harvard Law School in the spring, proving that all you need is the tenacity and drive to go after what interests you—even if it vastly differs from other’s perception of you.
It’s not lost on me that in a society that seems to only now be coming around to the idea of multi-talented-career-pivoting individuals, Mendler was ahead of the curve. Many of my friends and I find ourselves weighing the benefits of pivoting, wondering if it’s realistic or not or if it’s worth taking on the extra student loan debt, but her trajectory is starting new conversations in my social circles. She’s reminding us that we can and should follow our passions—even if that means taking small steps at a time, like taking night courses for a new skill or learning a hobby that we’ve been interested in. We are ideating about goals and dreams we may have set aside for more “realistic” endeavors and believing that they are, in fact, worth it and possible.
You can determine what success means to you
While we would have considered her successful after only hearing about her time in the limelight, Bridgit Mendler clearly wanted even more for her career. Launching into the space industry with her company Northwood Space, she’s creating what she tells CNBC to be “a data highway between Earth and space.” I’m sorry, what? Apparently, she didn’t originally set out to be the next new advancement in space technology, but she “completely fell in love with space law.” Power to you, Bridgit!
If this teaches us anything, it’s that we can do whatever we want to do and that we, as individuals, get to decide what our version of success looks like. For Bridgit Mendler, that looked like becoming a CEO in the space industry, and for you, it might look like starting your own interior design business. There is no timeline for success and more than that, it isn’t always linear. We aren’t supposed to know what tomorrow will hold, and we are allowed to change our minds and go after something bigger. In a country where women still earn only 82 cents for every dollar earned by men, we can’t describe how refreshing and affirming it is to see a woman take charge of her path and excel the way Bridget Mendler has been able to.
Bridgit Mendler is proof that there is no deadline on love, family, success, achievement, or any of the desirables we tend to work against the clock for.
You can thrive in your professional and personal life
Alongside her announcement about starting Northwood Space, Bridgit Mendler has also let us in on some personal achievements, like getting married to Griffin Cleverly (who now serves as co-founder and CTO of Northwood) and becoming a mom to “a sweet 4yo boy,” which she announced on X. So, despite being in quite possibly the most intense and important part of her career so far, she is thriving in her personal life, too. This serves as the reminder that it truly is possible to balance all the things that are important to us—whether that’s our career, family, hobbies, friendships, or something else altogether. Sure, not every day is going to be easy (work-life balance is a constant dance), but you can have a thriving career and a life and people you love to go home to every day, too.
You just need to give yourself permission to chase your dreams
There was a popular TikTok trend a few weeks back about how “life didn’t end when we were 17,” and Bridgit Mendler’s journey reminds us of just that. When Good Luck Charlie premiered, she was only 17, and that was just the beginning for her. While, yes, we have to acknowledge the fact that being a TV star at that age likely gave her a leg up when it came to pursuing her other passions, that doesn’t stop us from being impressed by her pure tenacity and career pivot.
She may have accomplished all of this at 31 years old, but even she wasn’t here at 25. There will be even more iterations of her as time goes on, each as unpredictable as the last. Bridgit Mendler is proof that there is no deadline on love, family, success, achievement, or any of the desirables we tend to work against the clock for. What we are chasing right now will change, and that is OK! We just need to permit ourselves to take that first leap and never settle because wanting more for ourselves in any area of our life is perfectly acceptable, even encouraged. There is an entire universe out there (space pun intended) that we can tap into as often as we like.
