He had then set up a Go Fund Me page for Maleesha. Since then, Since then, she has participated in a few modelling gigs. Recently, she was also featured in a short film called “Live Your Fairytale”. Now she has been announced as the face of Forest Essentials’ upcoming “Yuvati Selection” campaign. The social initiative aims to “empower young minds.” Today, the 14-year-old girl enjoys over 225,000 followers on Instagram and often adds the hashtag #princessfromtheslum to her posts.
In April, the brand shared a fascinating video on Instagram that showed Maleesha entering their store, which had her campaign photos. In the caption, the brand wrote, “Her face lit up with pure delight, to see her dreams in front of her in sight. Maleesha’s story is a beautiful reminder that dreams really do come true. #BecauseYourDreamsMatter.”
Sharing Maleesha Kharwa’s first video as the face of the new collection, Forest Essential said, “There’s beauty in every step of the journey, and we are celebrating it, one ritual at a time.”
Meanwhile, in an interview with Vogue India, Mira Kulkarni, the founder and chief managing director of Forest Essentials, said, “Through our Yuvati collection, we are not only supporting Maleesha’s dreams but also contributing to Project Paathshala to empower young minds. The brand will donate 10% of the proceeds from the Yuvati Selection towards Project Paathshala to provide children from underprivileged backgrounds access to education with the hope of a brighter India.”
Maleesha said that her campaign with Forest Essentials is her “biggest job till date.” Further, she added, “I want to be a model, but education will always come first for me.Kudos to this girl for speaking up her mind and sharing her dream of writing a novel someday
No matter how much learned we are, regardless of that, we travel to exotic places, and meet successful people, a part of our mind is ALWAYS occupied with preconceived notions and stereotypes.This girl from Dharavi, Mumbai is here to shatter such stereotypes.
“We educate women because it is smart, we educate women because it changes the world” – Drew Faust, President, Harvard University
Humans of Bombay talks about this girl from Dharavi, who shares, “I don’t like when people start talking to me in Hindi only because I’m from Dharavi. When they speak to me in Hindi, I reply in English because I go to school, and I’m educated. Someday, I will write a novel and sell it all over the world. It will be an important message to everyone — that even though we grow up in a slum, we can be educated, speak English and make a mark for ourselves.”
My heart goes out to this girl for paving her path and carving a niche for herself. At JWB, we feel that education is not just limited to a particular language. And, in this case, English. We give importance to English and fail to understand the core of education.
It’s time to shed these age old stereotypes and embrace the change.
