Earlier this week, TED2015 kicked off in Vancouver, Canada to much fanfare. With speakers like Monica Lewinsky and Shonda Rhimes on the docket, never has the 31-year-old annual conference—where mavens in the technology, entertainment, and design worlds serve up short, dynamic speeches—sparked more public interest than it does now.

Originally, of course, the momentum started building in 2006, when the event's founders first put those presentations online. The best ones were incendiary; as informational as a long-form New York Times piece and as fun as a BuzzFeed quiz, they pulled people far outside the TED target community into their orbit. (I mean, even Beyoncé sampled one by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie on her eponymous album.)

The last example might sound like an outlier, but honestly? It's not. TED's done a wonderful job working symbiotic magic, advancing the speaker's career while championing their cause. And it's been especially great for women and women's issues. Whether delivered by bold-faced names (Sheryl Sandberg) or lesser-known leaders (GoldieBlox founder Debbie Sterling), these speeches (er, "Talks," as TED calls them) are all amazing— and they all brought an important message to the table. (Or laptop, or wherever the world watched them.)

1. Amy Cuddy Taught Us to Use Body Language to Our Advantage

Cuddy argues that adjusting your posture and body language is "a free, no-tech life hack" that can change the way everyone perceives you—and that it's an especially important concept for women to adopt.

2. Jackson Katz Implored Us to Stop Calling Gender Violence a 'Women's Issue'

"Calling gender violence a women's issue is part of the problem for a number of reasons," he argues. For one, "it gives men an excuse not to pay attention." (And that's bad enough, isn't it?)

3. Megan Kamerick Pushed Us to Use More Women in the Media

Kamerick points out that women often get left out of the headlines because the sources in the stories are male, even when the stories are written by women. "Women are only 19 percent of the sources in stories on politics, and only 20 percent in stories on the economy," she notes. If reporters don't make sure to find insights from women, she cautions, they will keep getting left out of the narrative.

4. Sheryl Sandberg Told Us to Lean in (Sort of)

Back in 2010, before Lean In was a fully formed thing, Sheryl Sandberg urged women to stand up for themselves. "Women do not negotiate for themselves in the workforce," she said. "A study in the last two years of people entering the workforce out of college showed that 57 percent of boys entering, or men, I guess, are negotiating their first salary, and only seven percent of women [are]."

5. Debbie Sterling Stressed the Need to Bridge the STEM Gap

"Only 11 percent of engineers in the U.S. are women," Sterling said, when detailing her experience as a minority as a woman in tech. (Side note: she later went on to found GoldieBlox, maybe the coolest toy company ever, which encourages young girls to develop their math and science skills.)

6. Tavi Gevinson Talked About Strong Female Characters

"I think the question of what makes a strong female character often goes misinterpreted," then 15-year-old Tavi said. "What makes a strong female character is a character who has weaknesses," she said, in yet another display of uncharacteristic maturity.

7. Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie Inspired Beyoncé (and Everyone Else)

By now you've heard parts of it on Beyoncé's new album. But the whole of "We Should All Be Feminists" is amazing.

8. Hanna Rosin Gave Us Hope

Rosin shared a much less common viewpoint: "The 200,000-year period in which men have been top dog is truly coming to an end," she argued. It's worth watching, for sure.

9. Cameron Russell Shows Us How Superficial We Can Be

She may be a Victoria's Secret model, but that doesn't mean Cameron Russell isn't smart. And if you stereotyped her the second she walked onto the stage, you may need to reevaluate your thought process—you know, if these talks weren't making you do that already.

Related: Sheryl Sandberg Wants to Ban the Word 'Bossy'

Related: Meet Cameron Russell, the TED-Talking Victoria's Secret Model

Photos: Courtesy of TED