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YouTube hosted over 100 local women creators at an event held yesterday in Johannesburg to mark the culmination of International Women’s Month under the theme of Raise a Voice. 

The event, held for South African content creators, was aimed at providing them with inspiration, education and networking opportunities and kicked off a series of YouTube in Africa Masterclasses that will run throughout the year. Guests in attendance came from all content corners of YouTube ranging from beauty, travel, fashion and lifestyle, tech and finance. 

Says Zeph Masote,YouTube lead for South Africa noted, “YouTube stands for every voice and one of our goals is to reach equality in our portfolio of gender representation within our creator ecosystem. This year, we are committed to supporting women creators with a particular focus on kick starting a movement for newcomers in this space.”

Content Creator, Nicolette Mashile, was one of the guest speakers at the event and praised YouTube’s efforts to uplift women content creators.

“I love the fact that today’s session only focused on women, we don't see enough of that in society.  There were so many learnings that the ladies who attended can implement into their own channels and use them to grow into successful businesses,” she said.

“YouTube has really put the right tools into our faces and we should grab the opportunities wholeheartedly,” she added.

Raise a Voice is a project that calls on leading creators across verticals and industries to rise and inspire other younger, emerging creators to accelerate their creator journey on YouTube. 

The masterclass series which will run throughout the year aims to provide tools and resources to help female voices succeed via workshops, mentoring, networking and much more, especially in key content verticals with under-representation such as tech, film and finance.

Asha Patel, Head of Marketing for South Africa said “At YouTube, fostering community and storytelling has always been a crucial part of our ethos. Storytelling is the tool that allows creators to connect with their audiences and we are excited to be working with our creators to help them further unlock this power.”

“YouTube celebrates the diversity, uniqueness and stories that women bring to our platform. Our hope is to start a positive movement for motivating others and showing that we rise by lifting others”, Masote concludes.