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Girl Talk A former Oscar winner changes her focus to games for girls.

By Janean Chun

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

After winning an Oscar for Best Short Film and an MTV VideoAward, Laura Groppe decided a career transition was in order. So inMay 1994, she left the Hollywood limelight, took her $75,000 lifesavings, and started an Austin, Texas-based media company, GirlGames Inc.

"It made perfect sense to stay in the entertainmentindustry and yet move in the direction I saw entertainment goingin, which is interactive," says Groppe, 33. "I saw therewas nothing for women and girls and decided this was the perfectniche."

Though the medium is indeed hot, Groppe's first project, aCD-ROM series called Let's Talk About ME!, is "focusedmore on the girl than on the platform," she says."We're entering an era where nine out of 10 of these girlswill be income earners. We have an opportunity to feed these girls,give them the tools, and tell them to go for it."