The inspiring three-day festival witnessed close to 60 fabulous women, interacting, engaging, and empowering young women across the country.
On International Women’s Day, Sunsilk presents It’s A Girl Thing (IAGT) India co-powered by Stayfree, culminated its second edition on a grand note. This season saw close to 60 amazing women influencers, celebrities, and creators, take the virtual stage, and talk to young women about pressing and not so commonly spoken issues they face in everyday life.
Day 1 of IAGT India, started off with a thought-provoking session in Bangla and Marathi. Bangla sessions were moderated by Priyam Saha, starting with ‘Live Deeply: Nourishing Your Whole Self’ led by Nitasha Biswas and Simrun Chopra. It was followed by an in-depth discussion on the changing roles of women in media in a panel discussion on ‘Women In Media: Behind The Screens, led by Alokananda Dasgupta and Shutapa Paul. Furthermore, the event also hosted artists such as Kareema Barry and Srishti Guptaroy talk on ‘The Society We See: Artists Speak’ which was followed by an interesting session, You in your world: 50 Questions with actress Riya Sen. The Bangla edition ended with Ritabhari Chakraborty inspiring young girls on a very relevant topic ‘If You Can Dream It, You Can Do It’ in association with Sunsilk.
The Marathi Edition started with a much-needed discussion on how to manage one’s finances with Rachana Ranade at the panel ‘Finance Simplified: Take Charge’ in conversation with RJ Mayuri. The panel was followed by Work and Friendship panel with Deeksha Sonalkar and Reena Aggarwal. A fireside chat with Sai Tamhankar, enabled the audience to unravel a completely different and undiscovered side of the glamour industry. This session was followed by ‘If You Can Dream It, You Can Do It’ with Hruta Durgule. Adding to this fun and frolic, audiences witnessed another entertaining session, ‘You In Your World: 50 Questions Live’ with Sonalee Kulkarni. Day one ended on a high note with Prajakta Koli and Shalmali sharing their thoughts on ‘Taking Maharashtra To The World’.
Day two of the event saw both the Punjabi and Kannada editions kick off. The Punjabi Edition started with the session on ‘Behind The Scenes: Friendships In The World Of Glam’ with Harsimran Oberoi, Himanshi Parashar, Neha Thakur and Sukh Trehan. It was followed by ‘You In Your World: 50 Questions Live’ with Sara Gurpal and ‘A Look At My Life’ with Nikeet Dhillon where Nikeet shared her life experiences. Mehak Bamotra mesmerised audience with a musical performance and raised the entertainment quotient high. Wrapping up the Punjabi edition, the last session of the day was titled ‘If You Can Dream It, You Can Do It’ with Akasa Singh in association with Sunsilk. All the panels were moderated by RJ Prachi.
Soon after, the Kannada edition started with the session, ‘Fashion Essentials’ with Deena Pinto. Talking about self-confidence and self-love were Gouthami Jadav and Mansa Manohar, in conversation with RJ Megha at ‘Confidence – Not So Confidential’. The event also witnessed poignant discussions between, Namratha Gowda and RJ Megha in the ‘If You Can Dream It, You Can Do It’session and last but not the least, ‘Feel Good to Look Good’ panel saw Deena Pinto and Tanvi Geetha Ravishankar in conversation with RJ Megha making it a valuable session.
Culminating on International Women’s Day, the final event started with an inspirational session on ‘Self Love: A Long & Winding Road’ by Kusha Kapila and Priyam Saha. Following this the viewers were treated to two power packed sessions which was done in association with UN Women – ‘Take Charge: Tips from The Top by Tejaswani Gautam in conversation with Garima Surana followed by Relationships Matter by Ahsaas Channa, Garima Surana, Shilo Shiv Suleman and Vithika Yadav. Girls that make us laugh through their stand-up acts and innovative content Aishwarya Mohanraj, Sakshi Shivdasani, Supriya Joshi were seen in conversation with Priyam Saha in the session ‘Having A Laugh: Girls That Make You Giggle’. Add to this, Supriya Joshi came forward for a comedy monologue and tickled the funny bones of the audience through her act co-powered by Stayfree.
Another session which was presented by Sunsilk, ‘Dream It, Believe It, Do It’ was attended bythe Super girls – Akasa Singh, Garima Surana, Hruta Durgule, Namratha Gowda and Ritabhari Chakraborty followed by ‘Live Consciously’, an informative session with Dr. Ekta Chaudhary and Garima Surana.
Talking about the importance of sisterhood, the session on ‘All Girls Getaway: Me Time With My Tribe’ in collaboration with Amazing Thailand discussed at length about spending that quality time with your girl gang which was attended by Cholada Siddhivarn and Sharanya Iyer in conversation with Priyam Saha.
The event also played host to important discussions on the social stigma women face for their menses and how we can work towards removing it in association with Stayfree, through themed discussions under the session ‘Nothing To Hide: #itsJustAPeriod’ attended by noted personalities such as Aditi Gupta, Asha Negi, Dr. Tanaya Narendra, Mandira Bedi, Pratibha Singh, Priyam Saha, and a hard hitting spoken word by Priya Malik.
The event also saw a number of interesting interviews and panel discussions on various themes such as “A Head In The Game –How success sows sisterhood and community” attended by prominent and international speakers such as Aerial Powers, Kiara Nirghin and Garima Surana while “BROWN & PROUD– Owning your female Indian-vidualism” session attended by Sheena Melwani, Sukki Menon, Vidya Vox, with Priyam Saha shared their experiences with the audiences virtually.
Swaroop Banerjee, COO and Business Head, Zee Live said, “After a phenomenal edition one of IAGT India, we instantly realized that we should dive deeper, create a more inclusive and inspiring space to reach out to young women across the length and breadth of the country. We therefore decided to go regional and announced IAGT in Bangla, Marathi, Punjabi, Kannada, followed by an International Women’s Day special, with language not being a barrier and to drive unified voices for Women Empowerment. With close to 60 amazing influencers and creators across the globe coming under one roof, we hope that we brought positive and constructive conversation that may lead to change the lives of these brave women.”
Jasper Donut, Co-Founder and CEO of Branded, said, “As Branded along with ZEE Live successfully concludes the Regional edition, it feels nothing less than an accomplishment to have connected with such a wonderful line-up of inspiring women across India. Our IAGT community is growing rapidly and we couldn’t be prouder. We look forward to hosting another edition soon.”
Being a part of the IAGT India community, Manoj Gadgil -Vice President Marketing – J&J, “As a brand Stayfree has always strived to normalize periods and this is another step in that direction. We believe that period conversations are essential so that young girls don’t go through the experience alone. We, at Stayfree, want to equip the young girl to be ready for her first period and also give her an ecosystem that is ready to help her”.