At twenty-two years old, Lauren Simmons became the youngest woman and second African American woman to trade on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. But Simmons isn’t motivated by making history. She wants to educate people on the importance of financial wellness. She wants the industry to be a more representative place. And: “I want to make finance sexy,” says the former equities trader turned entrepreneur. “If I can empower one person, I’ve done my job. But my goal is to empower more.”

For most of her life, Simmons, wasn’t interested in finance at all. She had grand plans to become an epigeneticist. But finance chose her, she says. When she arrived in New York City after college, she took meetings with “anyone and everyone.” Richard Rosenblatt of Rosenblatt Securities gave her a shot, and her world flipped upside down. “After I was hired, I remember hearing Richard say, ‘This woman had the audacity to come to Wall Street and apply for a job she knew nothing about!’” Simmons laughs. “But at the end of the day, I think he admired that.”

“Did they respect me? Yes. Did they take me seriously as an employee? Absolutely not. But I thrived on that doubt—and I stood my ground from day one.”

With a warm smile, a sharp wit, and a strong aversion to pantsuits, Simmons didn’t fit the mold—she broke it. And she knew she had to work harder than most to prove herself, while her male coworkers took bets on whether or not she’d pass the Series 19 (a requisite exam with an 80 percent fail rate). “It was about as boys’ club as it gets,” says Simmons. “Did they respect me? Yes. Did they take me seriously as an employee? Absolutely not. But I thrived on that doubt—and I stood my ground from day one.”

Simmons knows that more is required to change the culture of the industry. But she’s hopeful. She’s got a TV show, speaking engagements, and a movie deal underway. All projects that she hopes will inspire more young minds to get curious.

Thinking back to when she penned her name alongside the Rockefellers and Vanderbilts in the NYSE induction book, Simmons feels conflicted. “It was bittersweet,” she says. “It’s crazy how in two-thousand-anything, we are still making history with the first Black president and the first African American female VP—that we’re still marking these historical achievements.”

In our conversation, Simmons covered everything from effecting change to overcoming imposter syndrome to dealing with doubters to why we shouldn’t fear the market or the B word (ahem, budgeting).