A charity called "Star Wars: Force For Change" is sending fans to the premiere of "Star Wars: Episode VII - The Force Awakens."

A lucky few heard the announcement online, but it wasn't just anyone they got to hear it from. 

Harrison Ford popped up to greet fans. While fans freaked out at the chance to talk to Han Solo himself, Ford also seemed absolutely delighted. 

You can enter to win the contest at Omaze.

Even if you don't win, you'll be able to see "The Force Awakens" in theaters on December 18th.

Story by Ian Phillips and editing by Chelsea Pineda

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SEE ALSO: This JJ Abrams TED Talk explains why the new 'Star Wars' trailers are so mysterious

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Pop culture is full of tastemakers who influence everything from how we dress to what we watch, read, and listen to. 

We decided to take a closer look at some the people who decide what's "cool" in America, from best-selling music artists to the creative directors behind the nation's most talked-about brands. We chose both industry heavyweights who hold serious clout and pop-culture icons whose every move makes headlines. 

Read on to see who's determining your definition of "cool" — whether you realize it or not.

SEE ALSO: The 50 most powerful companies in America

DON'T MISS: The 25 most successful 'Saturday Night Live' alumni

Amal Clooney

International human-rights lawyer

Last year, the human-rights lawyer and international fashion icon Amal Alamuddin married longtime bachelor George Clooney in Venice, Italy. Like Kate Middleton before her, Amal has become a beacon of style and class. In April, after she purchased a mink baseball cap on a trip to New York City, the store sold out of its stock and received dozens of calls requesting the vintage hat.

People are dubbing the 37-year-old one of the best-dressed workingwomen in the world and cataloging her every outfit, from the cream Stella McCartney pantsuit she wore to her and George’s civil service to the custom heels she favors by Italian shoe label Ennio Mecozzi.

Anna Wintour

Editor in chief, Vogue and artistic director, Condé Nast

For more than 20 years Anna Wintour has helmed Vogue, where she curates a fashion handbook for the masses. Wintour is the most watched — and possibly the most controversial — woman in high fashion, with millions of readers and industry peers emulating her style and hanging on her every endorsement. Her fashion prowess earned her a position as artistic director for Condé Nast, where she oversees the company’s 18 print magazines.

We expect to see even more of the fashion icon as the 2016 presidential race heats up. She’s been a supporter of Obama in the past two elections and has already been leading the fashion world in support of Hillary Clinton.

Bridget Foley

Executive editor, Women's Wear Daily

Women’s Wear Daily is widely acknowledged as the Bible of fashion, and for good reason: It’s the go-to trade publication of the industry, providing up-to-the-minute coverage of both breaking news and trends in fashion, making it a must read for everyone from designers to bloggers. The paper converted to a weekly earlier this year, but it is expanding its digital and international coverage.

As the executive editor of the iconic publication, Foley oversees everything that makes it into the paper, essentially controlling which designers and styles are seen and hyped and which don’t make the cut.

Thanksgiving can sometimes be a chaotic gathering, where relatives both close and distant travel to give thanks while chowing down on vast quantities of turkey, stuffing, potatoes, and pie.

In recent years, many millennials have chosen to opt out of the family chaos in favor of spending Thanksgiving with friends.

In fact, a recent national survey by Dunnhumby found that 42% of 25- to 34-year-olds and 37% of 18- to 24-year-olds plan to spend the holiday with friends this year.

For some, Friendsgiving, as it's known, is a welcome alternative — or addition — to the often tiring, stressful, and family-filled Turkey Day traditions. 

Whether it's your first or your fifth year spending the holidays with friends, here are some tips for hosting the perfect Friendsgiving.

SEE ALSO: The best and worst times to drive around Thanksgiving, according to Waze

SEE ALSO: 15 gourmet Thanksgiving meals for New Yorkers who hate to cook

Outsource your grocery shopping.

Technology is a huge part of our daily lives, and that doesn't stop when it comes to the holidays. According to a recent survey by Dunnhumby, 21% of 25- to 34-year-olds plan to buy groceries for their Thanksgiving meal using a food delivery app like Instacart, Shipt, and Google Express. 16% say they'll use an online grocery delivery service like Peapod, FreshDirect, Amazon Fresh, or BlueApron.

You can use these pre-prepared and delivered-to-your-doorstep meals to keep the cooking to a minimum and easily keep track of expenses.

Or do it yourself.

Chelsea Fagan, founder and writer at The Financial Diet, a blog about the luxury of spending less (in and out of the kitchen), tells Business Insider that putting a Thanksgiving meal together yourself can be just as simple as ordering out — if you do it right. "To save time and headaches (and often money), go the rotisserie chicken route," said Fagan, who's been celebrating Friendsgiving for the past four years.

Rotisserie chickens are "still delicious, but [don't] take a Herculean effort to make, and [are] still festive to carve at the table," she said. Fagan also suggests using frozen veggies because they're cheaper, easier to prepare, and just as delicious as fresh ones when properly sautèed and seasoned. 

Divide and conquer.

Once you've decided whether you're ordering out or doing it potluck style, send out an Excel sheet or Google doc so that everyone can sign up to bring extra side dishes, desserts, or even tables and chairs, if needed. 

You can also stockpile a few recipes to send out along with the sign-up sheet for those friends who claim to be incompetent in the kitchen. Sites like Brit and Co. and The Financial Diet have troves of foolproof and inventive side dish and dessert recipes.

We were surprised to find out that he has a perspective on monogamy and relationships that couldn't be further from that of his dad, who famously enjoyed multiple girlfriends at the same time.

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Young Wall Streeters headed to New York City dance club Marquee on Thursday night, decked out in sparkling cocktail dresses and dapper suits for the sixth annual Toast to Wishes charity event organized by Make-a-Wish New York's under-40 board.

The event, which has brought in $1.5 million over the past six years, helps grant the wishes of children diagnosed with life-threatening medical conditions.

"We felt like there was a void in the market, so to speak, of really fun — truly fun — charity events that supported great causes," Zach Coopersmith, the 30-year-old organizer for the event, told Business Insider. Coopersmith is a cofounder of Lending Ridge Capital. "For me, the impact that Make-A-Wish has on kids and their families dealt such a tough hand is unmatched, unparalleled," he told last year's attendees.

With an open bar, a DJ, and plenty of hors d'oeuvres, the gathering attracts 650 people and features silent auctions and raffles. Tickets cost $185 for general admission; the event sold out.

Welcome to Marquee in Chelsea, New York City.

The venue hosts the Toast to Wishes event every year — which takes roughly six months to plan and ushers in 650 guests.

The event was well attended by young Wall Streeters, such as Nick Lyons, from PJT Partners, Tara Grom of SAP Partners, Mike Middleton of Global One Investors, Garrett Schreiber of Enhanced Capital, and Joe DiGennaro of BlackRock.

Adele's new album is expected to be the fastest-selling album in chart history, with 2.5 million in projected first-week sales as Billboard reports.

The projection underscores just how exceptional of a figure Adele has become. To put things into perspective, first-week album sales for Taylor Swift's "1989," for example, were half of what Adele is expected to sell for "25."

So what makes Adele so special?

In short, it has to do with talent, universal appeal, and a refusal to adhere to emerging trends in pop.

Story by Tony Manfred and editing by Stephen Parkhurst

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After a long fall, it's finally getting colder in New York City. That means we're going to start dropping not-so-subtle hints about how a gentleman should dress for winter weather.

Footwear is key here. Yes, you want to be warm. Yes, you want to be comfortable. But you do not want to dress like a child at work.

With that in mind, we reached out to Jessica Cadmus, founder of The Wardrobe Whisperer and a stylist who specializes in working with professionals at the top of their game.

She told us that there are really only five kind of boots that are acceptable to wear with a suit.

"What makes a boot suit-worthy is its level of refinement. The first thing to look at is the tread. If the boot's tread is high and jagged, most likely you are looking at a hiking boot, and those should not be worn with a suit. Not on Wall Street, at least. The sole/heel should be similar to a dress shoe," she said. (The tread, if you don't know, is the part of the boot that touches the ground.)

"Next, look at the construction. If you are noticing chunky elements like big grommets and heavy stitching and laces, chances are those boots are also made for the trail. The details of the boot you need are more elegant and muted, very similar to a dress shoe but with a high shaft," she added. (The shaft is the height of the boot from the bottom to the top.)

There are five kinds of boots that meet these requirements:

SEE ALSO: Gentlemen, here's how you get dressed for work in 5 minutes or less

The Chukka

This pair is from Paul Evans.

The Chelsea

This pair is from To Boot New York.

The Jodhpur

This pair is sold at Barneys.

WhatsApp cofounder Jan Koum just disposed of a lot of Facebook stock.

Earlier this week, he sold shares amounting to nearly $300 million.

Although the sale wasn't discretionary and was just meant to pay off the taxes on stock Koum received after selling his company, that's a lot of money — and makes the about $160 million Marc Andreessen just sold look like small potatoes.

But it's even more interesting in light of Koum's rags-to-riches story.

Here's how Koum got to where he is today:

SEE ALSO: Marc Andreessen has sold nearly 75% of his Facebook stock in 2 weeks

Koum's net worth is $8.8 billion, ranking him No. 3 on Forbes' list of America's richest entrepreneurs under 40.

Source: Forbes

But the CEO comes from humble beginnings. He was born in Ukraine in 1976, into a household without running water.

Source: Forbes

Here's how he describes life in his hometown outside Kiev: "It was so run-down that our school didn't even have an inside bathroom. Imagine the Ukrainian winter, -20°C, where little kids have to stroll across the parking lot to use the bathroom. Society was extremely closed off: you can read 1984, but living there was experiencing it."

Source: Wired

The Hotel de Glace in Quebec just might be the coolest hotel in the world. Either way, it's the only ice hotel in North America.

The hotel is a temporary structure that only exists for a few months every year. It was first built in 2001, and has been created every winter since then. This year, it will be around from January 4th to March 28th.

The hotel is made of 500 tons of ice, and 30,000 tons of snow. The snow used is man made: churned until it's extra humid and dense.

Construction begins in December, as soon as the temperatures have been consistently below 32F for a week. Around 50 people work tirelessly for around six weeks to create the 32,000 square-foot, 44-room hotel, which also features a restaurant, hot tubs, a sauna, and an ice bar.

Check it out.

Story by Sophie-Claire Hoeller and editing by Carl Mueller

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Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg will take a two month paternity leave once his wife, Priscilla Chan, has their baby girl in the coming months. 

"Studies show that when working parents take time to be with their newborns, outcomes are better for the children and families," he writes on his Facebook page.

Facebook offers its US employees up to four months of paid parental leave which they can take throughout the year. Although Zuckerberg says he'll be taking two months when his daughter arrives, it's unclear whether he'll be taking any more time later. 

The couple first announced Chan's pregnancy in July, when Zuckerberg revealed that they had been trying to have a baby over several years and three miscarriages.

"Every day things are getting a little more real for us, and we're excited to start this next stage in our lives," he writes. 

Netflix announced unlimited paid maternity and paternity leave earlier this year, sparking a slew of policy changes at other big tech companies like Microsoft, Amazon, and Adobe. Facebook has offered four months since before it was trendy.

Facebook ads chief Andrew "Boz" Bosworth told Business Insider's Racehl Gillett earlier this year that the company encourages men and women and all levels of the organization to take their full time off. 

"You know, we have a tremendously deep respect for people building their families," Bosworth said. "It's the most important thing for society. So you gotta take the conflicts out of it."

Fortunately for Zuck, he's got a deep bench at Facebook. 

Here's Zuck's full post:

SEE ALSO: Power players: the most important Facebook execs you've never heard of

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NOW WATCH: The 19-year-old Instagram model who quit social media says haters are just proving her point

Turns out mom was right. 

Chicken soup is good for a cold.

But it's not the only old-school remedy that scientists have actually found to be helpful.

Here are nine weird household tricks that you can actually use to ward off pain, soothe a cold, calm a headache, or brighten your smile.

SEE ALSO: 17 'healthy habits' you're better off giving up

RELATED: What 200 calories of your favorite Thanksgiving foods looks like

Feeling a cold coming on? Try gargling with plain water. A study of close to 400 healthy volunteers found that those who gargled with plain water were significantly less likely to come down with upper-respiratory-tract infections (URTIs) — a type of infection often linked with colds and the flu — during the study period than those who didn’t gargle. The researchers concluded that, “Simple water gargling was effective to prevent URTIs among healthy people.”

If you tend to get motion sick on trips, try packing along a couple pieces of ginger candy. One study comparing people taking a placebo with those taking ginger found that just one gram of the root was helpful in alleviating symptoms of seasickness, morning sickness, and nausea induced by chemotherapy.

In general, ginger may also be helpful for relieving gas and indigestion, Stephen Hanauer, MD, a professor of gastroenterology and hepatology at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, told Prevention.

Mom was right. While the jury’s still out on precisely why chicken soup makes us feel better when we’re sick, researchers are pretty certain that it does. For one study in which researchers were trying to pinpoint the effect the soup had on inflammation (a common component of colds), they found that it slowed the movement of neutrophils, the white blood cells that are the hallmark of acute infection. In other words, the soup appears to help calm down the inflammation that triggers many cold symptoms.

Love is mysterious, but it's probably not destiny.

According to the research, your hormones, interests, and upbringing all help determine who you fall for — and who falls for you.

Since your partner plays a significant role in your long-term health, happiness, and even your career prospects, we've scoured the studies and collected some of the psychological reasons two people click.

This is an updated version of an article originally written by Maggie Zhang.

SEE ALSO: Science says people decide these 9 things within seconds of meeting you

DON'T MISS: The 27 jobs that are most damaging to your health

If you're really, really alike

Decades of studies have shown that the cliché that "opposites attract" is totally off.

"Partners who are similar in broad dispositions, like personality, are more likely to feel the same way in their day-to-day lives," said Gian Gonzaga, lead author of a study of couples who met on eHarmony. "This may make it easier for partners to understand each other."

If you look like their opposite-sex parent

University of St. Andrews psychologist David Perrett and his colleagues found that some people are attracted to folks with the same hair and eye color of their opposite-sex parents, as well as the age range they saw at birth.

"We found that women born to 'old' parents (over 30) were less impressed by youth, and more attracted to age cues in male faces than women with 'young' parents (under 30)," the authors wrote. "For men, preferences for female faces were influenced by their mother's age and not their father's age, but only for long-term relationships."

If you smell right

A University of Southern California study of women who were ovulating suggested that some prefer the smell of T-shirts worn by men with high levels of testosterone.

This matched with other hormone-based instincts: Some women also preferred men with a strong jaw line when they were ovulating. 

It turns out there's a reason why there's separate skincare products for men and women — and it goes beyond the gunmetal gray or pink container.

"What’s unique with the skin is that the skin is very sensitive to sex hormone levels," Dr. Terrence Keaney, a dermatologist who specializes in men's skin and works with Dove's Men+Care line, told Business Insider.

Since men have a lot more testosterone than women, and lower levels of estrogen, "it's no surprise that men’s and women’s skin is different," Dr Keaney said.

"What works for a female patient doesn’t necessarily work for a male patient."

Testosterone is the main reason why men's skin is thicker, why their hair — on their face, scalp, and elsewhere — is coarse and thicker, and why they sweat more than women.

Men's lower levels of estrogen affect their skin's moisture content and wrinkles. Since men's skin is so different in so many ways, it's obvious that they would need products specially formulated for their skin.

The next time you reach for your girlfriend's moisturizer, remember that you may not be doing as much to help your skin as you could be if you had the right product for your male skin.

SEE ALSO: 4 steps for the perfect shaving routine, according to a dermatologist

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NOW WATCH: 11 amazing facts about your skin

Diamond Foundry is a startup based in California that claims to be able to "grow" hundreds of real diamonds in just a few weeks. And Leonardo DiCaprio is just one of many influential investors backing the endeavor that could change the face of the diamond industry as we know it. 

Produced by Jenner Deal. Original Reporting by Tanya Lewis.

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Harvard is one of the most prestigious universities in the world.

The Cambridge, Massachusetts, school accepted just 5.3% of roughly 37,000 applications for its class of 2019. As Harvard President Drew Gilpin Faust said last year, "We could fill our class twice over with valedictorians."

The school seeks out students who not only have high grades, but also have outstanding achievements under their belts — from overcoming homelessness to starting their own nonprofits. The students who manage to catch the attention of admissions officers overcome exceptional odds, but they should maintain some perspective.

Many things in life — like landing a job at some Wal-Mart locations — are harder to achieve than getting into that prestigious university.

Ben Winsor contributed to the original reporting of this story.

A job at some Walmart locations

Met with both merriment and protest, Walmart came to Washington, D.C., at the end of 2013. 

The store received more than 23,000 applications but hired just 600 associates, NBC Washington reported. That's a 2.6% acceptance rate — almost twice as selective as Harvard.

While many Harvard graduates can expect a six-figure income, Walmart employees pocket an average of $11.83 an hour or nearly $25,000 annually, according to the company.

A job at this hedge fund

Landing a job on Wall Street is notoriously hard.

But gaining employment at hedge fund giant Citadel seems to be nearly impossible.

Founder and CEO Ken Griffin — who's also a Harvard alum — noted on CNBC that the hedge fund planned to interview 10,000 candidates to fill 300 job openings.

That's equates to a mere 3% acceptance rate. 

The top 50 posts on a friend's Newsfeed

When Facebook compiles your Newsfeed, it chooses from roughly 1,500 different posts.

The company uses an algorithm based on the popularity and relevance of posts, along with other factors, to decide what goes where.

As a result, there's a 3.3% chance a certain post finds its way into the top 50 stories on someone's Newsfeed.

If you want to boost your chances, posts with photos do far better than links or text-based posts.

In an interview with SiriusXM's Jenny Eliscu, Adele talked about her philosophy on body image issues.

Her overall outlook is simple: embrace your individuality.

"There's only one of you, so why would you want to look like everyone else?" she asked. "Why would you want to have the same hairstyle as everyone else? And have the same opinions as everyone else?"

She added that body image insecurities aren't important in the grand scheme of things.

"I do have body image problems for sure, but I don't let them rule my life at all. There's bigger issues going on in the world than how I might feel about myself."

Story by Tony Manfred and editing by Kristen Griffin

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A delicious Thanksgiving meal can take a lot of time and effort to put together, and cooking an excellent turkey is definitely one of the hardest parts. 

For those who are either looking for a new main course or who just want an easier way to prepare the bird, we've put together a list of 20 Thanksgiving plates to try this year. 

From mini turkey pies to a crown roast of lamb, here are 20 ways to spice up your holiday meal. We've included some of our favorite recipes with each dish. 

SEE ALSO: 50 meals everyone should eat in their lifetime

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Stuff pork chops with a variety of fall staples like cranberries, pecans, and apples.

Click here for a recipe »

Go for a classic honey-glazed ham for your Thanksgiving centerpiece. Choose a boneless version for ease, or go for a bone-in holiday ham for a stand-out piece.

Click here for a recipe »

Cornish game hens can often be juicier than turkey, and they cook in less time, making them an easy and tasty alternative.

Click here for a recipe »

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Psychologists call it "thin slicing."

Within moments of meeting you, people decide all sorts of things about you, from status to intelligence to conscientiousness.

Career experts say it takes just three seconds for someone to determine whether they like you and want to do business with you.

Fortunately, you have some control over the way others see you. For example, wearing tailored clothes and looking your conversation partner in the eye will generally create a more positive impression. But as for how aggressive you seem? That's largely determined by your facial structure.

Here, we've rounded up 13 assumptions people make about you — sometimes accurate and sometimes less so — based on first impressions. Read on to find out what signals you might be giving off.

SEE ALSO: 9 things you're doing that make people dislike you immediately

DON'T MISS: The 27 jobs that are most damaging to your health

If you're trustworthy

People may decide on your trustworthiness in as little as a tenth of a second.

Princeton researchers found this out by giving one group of 245 university students 100 milliseconds to rate the attractiveness, competence, likability, aggressiveness, and trustworthiness of actors' faces.

One hundred and twenty-eight members of another group were able to take as long as they wanted. Results showed that ratings of trustworthiness were highly similar between the two groups — even more similar than ratings of attractiveness — suggesting that we figure out almost instantaneously if we can trust someone.

If you're high-status

A small Dutch study found that people wearing name-brand clothes — Lacoste and Tommy Hilfiger, to be precise — were seen as higher status and wealthier than folks wearing nondesigner clothes when they approached 80 shoppers in a mall.

"Perceptions did not differ on any of the other dimensions that might affect the outcome of social interactions," the authors wrote. "There were no differences in perceived attractiveness, kindness, and trustworthiness."

Just status and wealth.

If you're straight or gay

A small 2008 study of male and female undergrads given photos of 90 men's faces — half of the men were straight and half were gay — found that on average, the participants accurately judged the photographed man's sexual orientation in a twentieth of a second about 57% of the time, 7% better than pure chance.

"The rapid and accurate perception of male sexual orientation may be just another symptom of a fast and efficient cognitive mechanism for perceiving the characteristics of others," wrote study authors Nicholas O. Rule and Nalini Ambady.

Television is a source of information and entertainment that people enjoy the world over. 

The United Nations declared November 21 "World Television Day" to recognize "the increasing impact television has on decision-making" and "its potential role in sharpening the focus on other major issues, including economic and social issues." 

Even in the most difficult of circumstances, people will do whatever it takes to get their TV fix. 

SEE ALSO: The fascinating story behind New York City's only remaining backlot movie studio

Inside a room in Aleppo's Karm al-Jabal district, a Free Syrian Army fighter kicks back while watching TV and surveillance monitors.

In Donegal, Ireland, a cat turns his back on the TV while the Irish Prime Minister Edna Kenny gives a televised address.

Outside of Madrid, in the gypsy settlement of Puerta de Hierro, a young boy takes a bath while watching TV at his grandparents' house.