thank you so much for having me here
today it’s a pleasure to be speaking to
your social media has engulfed our lives
in the most positive and negative way
possible it has brought us together in
ways that are really unimaginable we
know almost hourly what our friends are
doing where they are what they love and
who they’re connecting with but it has
also ripped us apart as a society as all
that Israel is being overshadowed by
noise facades artificial happiness
unreliable news perfectly created
timelines of our lives when I meet new
people it’s difficult to pinpoint Who I
am in just one word so I often joke and
say I’m a model in ball sort of like
mother-in-law I’m a model I’m brand
ambassador I’ve been in the industry
since I was 14 years old I studied law
but I’m not practicing but I aim to be a
role model in all that I do because I
feel a social responsibility to the many
young boys and girls following my work I
also aim to create a new model
philanthropy and giving through social
media there is immense untapped
potential online that every person
despite their background can and should
be involved in philanthropy lies at the
heart of what I do
both in the fashion world and outside
having studied and focused on a number
of humanitarian areas like refugee law
and international human rights law I’ve
been able to discover the causes that
speak to me in my heart but there is one
quality no degree no court no profession
can ever teach you empathy I was born
and raised in Sydney Australia to a
Lebanese family thanks to my parents I
was fortunate to have had a very strong
Arabic influence at home from the food
we ate to the language we spoke and
every single year my father used to take
us to Lebanon to be immersed in Arabic
way of life and meet our extended
families the troops were beautiful they
were really beautiful but they were real
for the first time in my life I saw
children tall enough just appear into
car windows begging for food and money
fast forward many years later I was 21
years old and shopping with a friend of
mine from Australia in Beirut we came
across a seven-year-old boy named
Mohammad on the street Mohammad looked
like a rag doll he was tired dirty
barefoot his eyes barely open asked him
a few basic questions about his family
and his background he told me that his
mother is at home with his siblings his
father had passed away and had arrived
here on a bus I asked him if he was
unwanted 2:8 he said yes so I held his
hand and we started walking to a
fast-food restaurant along the way we
bumped into another young boy in a
similar situation and his brother and
they joined us as well in sight Mohammad
pointed at the chicken and said he
wanted meat we placed our order and
picked it up amongst a few awkward
stairs and approving nods from strangers
and then we went to a bench outside we
opened up the food but Mohammed wasn’t
eating I said team hamid why aren’t you
eating he looked up at me and he said
it’s very rude to eat when other people
are not eating and you didn’t order any
food a seven year old refugee child
starving had more empathy and savoir
fear than a lot of adults Einar as I
started crying
naturally one of the other young boys
went into a convenience store and
purchased with the little money he had a
small packet of tissues for me empathy
from a very young age all I wanted to do
was to build bridges between my two
worlds in order to find my identity I’m
Lebanese but I lived this privileged
life in Australia and how could I forget
about these children on the street in
Lebanon I was torn between the new the
two worlds and I knew there was a big
divide amongst the two worlds there were
even divides and walls within
communities of nyssa teas and religions
within Australia and you never really
fit in when your mother packs eat
tabouleh and Hamas for lunch and the
rest of the children having Vegemite
sandwiches funnily enough in Lebanon
I was always seen as the Aussie girl
with her Aussie accent from
by beach so I started my charity work at
17 years old with organizations based in
the two countries and beyond I advocated
for whatever spoke to me whatever course
that was universal no matter where you
were from what background you have or
which country you live in
you will relate from orphanages to
children cancer centers and we even
helped build wells in Rwanda and Orissa
India I wanted to help others and I knew
was a way to unite people to relate and
find meaning as far back as I could
remember it’s funny because my parents
is to always tell me you’re gonna grow
up to be a humanitarian you lawyer I was
always fighting other people’s battles I
was standing up for those being bullied
at school and often getting in trouble
for it constantly arguing the
alternative challenging thoughts and
ideas rebelling against the norm and I
was incredibly stubborn I knew what I
wanted all the time and I never took no
for an answer which is how I got into
fashion I love fashion but I’ve always
been deeply empathetic towards others
putting myself in their shoes no matter
what they are going through good or bad
and I knew I wanted to combine both
worlds why not why can’t anyone from any
industry help or be interested in
humanity do I have to be a charity
worker or a humanitarian lawyer a
philanthropist or have billions of
dollars to help or do I just have to
care and combine that with the ability
to reach online there comes a time when
one must take a position that is neither
safe nor politic nor popular but he must
take it because conscience tells him it
is right these are popular words from
Martin Luther King jr. so why social
media you may ask a lot of charity work
and generosity can and arguably should
be done under the radar which is the way
I started many years ago you see
philanthropy is a culture it’s about
making connections rather than raising
as much money as possible with the rise
of online connectivity people are able
to build relationships with
organizations through discussion
volunteering and online activism and I’m
not talking about thoughts and prayers
I’m not talking about petitions or
slacktivism I’m talking about a
community that engages with the mission
and goal of organized
and they choose what speaks to them a
community where region resonance is
limitless the refugee crisis happening
in multiple countries was the cause that
spoke to me last year I went on to very
successful humanitarian missions success
in terms of awareness and fundraising in
July I visited the Zaatari camp in
Jordan the largest Syrian refugee camp
in the world hosting 80,000 Syrian
refugees it was part of an international
campaign I fronted full review on UNICEF
in order to raise money for the Syrian
refugees in December I went to Qatar
Padang camp in Cox Bazaar in Bangladesh
to meet the Ranger people fleeing
Myanmar into Bangladesh that was a trip
with UNHCR and there were 600,000 of
them the two experiences were very
different and very overwhelming as I
walked in the camps and I looked up at
the thick walls and the barbed wire then
looked down at the beautiful art some of
the Syrian refugees drew on the caravans
I couldn’t help but imagine all the
potential in there all the artists the
medics the doctors the tailors the
filmmakers that could exist if they were
given the right opportunities in life to
live and to succeed I wanted to
translate what I was experiencing in the
cab onto social media and what a
difficult task it was because there are
sites there are emotions stories facial
expressions only the eye can comprehend
how can I translate the hole in my heart
the hole that I felt when I saw an
elderly Syrian refugee man crying next
to his fruit I wanted to serve as a
amplify their voices so I gave it my
best shot
I took my followers through a time line
during my trip in Bangladesh who the
Rohingya people are why are they fleeing
then I took my audience into their lives
I got to know individual sufferers and
translated them in a raw and unedited
way their heartaches were scattered on
my 400 or so thousand followers
timelines for a couple of days and out
of all the messages I received and all
the donate
UNHCR may have received the messages
that made me the happiest were the ones
that said that nothing else on the
matter on their timelines mattered for
those couple of days everything seemed
like noise except the heartbreaking and
poignant stories of the refugees and
then people started asking how can I
help
well it took me three days to get to go
to Berlin camp and took hours and hours
listening and absorbing to the stories
of the refugees but it was at the click
of a finger that hundreds and thousands
of people learnt what was happening from
a genuine and unfiltered perspective
this unprecedented power to spread and
share to inform ourselves at our
fingertips the internet specifically
social media where we all meet is the
most democratic means in mass media
we’re able to share debate speak of
research am i rid of topics and yes
there may be censorship sand walls
around in certain places about certain
topics but it doesn’t stop the majority
of us the majority luckier than half of
the world’s population living in the
shadows of the gray wall to speak out
and instead of switching off from our
daily stresses through mindless escapism
through the recurring flick of our
thumbs on those timelines why don’t we
switch on more switch on by appreciating
the blessings in our life and the power
we hold as the lucky half and be aware
of our eco chambers and the potential to
educate ourselves the humanitarian
mission sparked a lot of coverage and
discussion from all the major fashion
publications and more which I was very
very grateful for there is a recurring
question that journalists often asked me
they say to me Jessica what is success
to you and I asked you today what is
success to tea to you is that a number
is it a feeling see I decided at a very
young age that my success the ultimate
success is the imprint I leave behind in
this world as American philosopher and
psychologist William James said the
great use of life is
to spend it for something that will
outlast it I will not see my success
today or tomorrow but long after my
message and the message and actions of
so many other people trying to make a
difference is infiltrated spread and
repeated so today I want you all to
think about this very important idea for
the first time in human history for the
first time ever we are leaving behind
the biggest trace of information about
ourselves for future generations to see
can you imagine that long after we are
gone our great great great great
grandchildren will know what we were
doing in April 2018 everything we have
ever researched posted liked will be at
their fingertips can you now envisage
accessing that kind of information in a
full in the form of a very simple
Instagram account about your ancestors
wouldn’t it be mind-blowing to go
on-line right now and see a visual diary
of hundreds of posts throughout their
lives with dates and captions capturing
their thoughts and emotions what
information did they leave behind what
information are we leaving behind for
future generations to say about us is it
indicative of our stance regarding
humanity at this period of time are we
posting real content did we fight for
causes that mattered most where we
activists in our local communities did
we care about the extinction of certain
species or cared and opened our doors
for refugees will they be proud and will
they say Wow 200 years ago my
great-great-great great-great
grandmother Jessica try to fight for the
marginalized rahaga people and educated
her followers about who they are
individually the 87 year old grandfather
who has fled four times in his life the
13 year old now the head of his
household because both his parents were
killed will they see that I used my
status in the fashion industry and chose
to work with conscionable brands what if
these visual Diaries we create online
are the legacy we leave behind for our
descendants for them to find inspiration
from and continue the story themselves I
would like to conclude with the story of
a young girl who really brought me hope
and encouragement to continue advocating
during my visit to the Zaatari camp in
Jordan I entered a family’s caravan
which hope which happens to be their
home seven family members live there in
not so ideal hot and arid conditions the
family doesn’t have much privacy in fact
the family doesn’t have much at all I
met their eldest daughter a 16 year old
Omaima a moment that I had studied law
and she wanted to so eagerly show me
something in her bedroom which was a
small makeshift area with her bed and
cupboard we went there and she proceeded
to take out a folder from under her and
she showed me the names ages and marital
status of every young girl in that 80
thousand person refugee camp
Omaima in her most dire conditions was
combating child marriage and making
waves so much that she actually reached
media outside who ended up covering her
story as a result she was not only able
to successfully educate parents and
young girls on the disadvantages of
Garrett getting married young but she
actually made a difference and we saw
numbers decline she didn’t see herself
as a victim she thought about them she’s
not only an example of change but change
that occurs within breaking down walls
starting with the communities around us
and build up the story making it so big
we spread it online where it will
forever stay long after we are gone
growing up I was heavily influenced by
Lebanese American writer poet and artist
Gibran Khalil Gibran as many other
Lebanese were he said tenderness and
kindness are not signs of weakness and
despair but stret but manifestations of
strength and resolution we all have
tenderness and kindness within us and if
we channel that towards those whose
have been silenced along with empathy we
hold the power to spread good we possess
the weapon to shatter walls and bring
light to humanity on our timelines and
write stories
future generations will one day read
about thank you [Applause]
today it’s a pleasure to be speaking to
your social media has engulfed our lives
in the most positive and negative way
possible it has brought us together in
ways that are really unimaginable we
know almost hourly what our friends are
doing where they are what they love and
who they’re connecting with but it has
also ripped us apart as a society as all
that Israel is being overshadowed by
noise facades artificial happiness
unreliable news perfectly created
timelines of our lives when I meet new
people it’s difficult to pinpoint Who I
am in just one word so I often joke and
say I’m a model in ball sort of like
mother-in-law I’m a model I’m brand
ambassador I’ve been in the industry
since I was 14 years old I studied law
but I’m not practicing but I aim to be a
role model in all that I do because I
feel a social responsibility to the many
young boys and girls following my work I
also aim to create a new model
philanthropy and giving through social
media there is immense untapped
potential online that every person
despite their background can and should
be involved in philanthropy lies at the
heart of what I do
both in the fashion world and outside
having studied and focused on a number
of humanitarian areas like refugee law
and international human rights law I’ve
been able to discover the causes that
speak to me in my heart but there is one
quality no degree no court no profession
can ever teach you empathy I was born
and raised in Sydney Australia to a
Lebanese family thanks to my parents I
was fortunate to have had a very strong
Arabic influence at home from the food
we ate to the language we spoke and
every single year my father used to take
us to Lebanon to be immersed in Arabic
way of life and meet our extended
families the troops were beautiful they
were really beautiful but they were real
for the first time in my life I saw
children tall enough just appear into
car windows begging for food and money
fast forward many years later I was 21
years old and shopping with a friend of
mine from Australia in Beirut we came
across a seven-year-old boy named
Mohammad on the street Mohammad looked
like a rag doll he was tired dirty
barefoot his eyes barely open asked him
a few basic questions about his family
and his background he told me that his
mother is at home with his siblings his
father had passed away and had arrived
here on a bus I asked him if he was
unwanted 2:8 he said yes so I held his
hand and we started walking to a
fast-food restaurant along the way we
bumped into another young boy in a
similar situation and his brother and
they joined us as well in sight Mohammad
pointed at the chicken and said he
wanted meat we placed our order and
picked it up amongst a few awkward
stairs and approving nods from strangers
and then we went to a bench outside we
opened up the food but Mohammed wasn’t
eating I said team hamid why aren’t you
eating he looked up at me and he said
it’s very rude to eat when other people
are not eating and you didn’t order any
food a seven year old refugee child
starving had more empathy and savoir
fear than a lot of adults Einar as I
started crying
naturally one of the other young boys
went into a convenience store and
purchased with the little money he had a
small packet of tissues for me empathy
from a very young age all I wanted to do
was to build bridges between my two
worlds in order to find my identity I’m
Lebanese but I lived this privileged
life in Australia and how could I forget
about these children on the street in
Lebanon I was torn between the new the
two worlds and I knew there was a big
divide amongst the two worlds there were
even divides and walls within
communities of nyssa teas and religions
within Australia and you never really
fit in when your mother packs eat
tabouleh and Hamas for lunch and the
rest of the children having Vegemite
sandwiches funnily enough in Lebanon
I was always seen as the Aussie girl
with her Aussie accent from
by beach so I started my charity work at
17 years old with organizations based in
the two countries and beyond I advocated
for whatever spoke to me whatever course
that was universal no matter where you
were from what background you have or
which country you live in
you will relate from orphanages to
children cancer centers and we even
helped build wells in Rwanda and Orissa
India I wanted to help others and I knew
was a way to unite people to relate and
find meaning as far back as I could
remember it’s funny because my parents
is to always tell me you’re gonna grow
up to be a humanitarian you lawyer I was
always fighting other people’s battles I
was standing up for those being bullied
at school and often getting in trouble
for it constantly arguing the
alternative challenging thoughts and
ideas rebelling against the norm and I
was incredibly stubborn I knew what I
wanted all the time and I never took no
for an answer which is how I got into
fashion I love fashion but I’ve always
been deeply empathetic towards others
putting myself in their shoes no matter
what they are going through good or bad
and I knew I wanted to combine both
worlds why not why can’t anyone from any
industry help or be interested in
humanity do I have to be a charity
worker or a humanitarian lawyer a
philanthropist or have billions of
dollars to help or do I just have to
care and combine that with the ability
to reach online there comes a time when
one must take a position that is neither
safe nor politic nor popular but he must
take it because conscience tells him it
is right these are popular words from
Martin Luther King jr. so why social
media you may ask a lot of charity work
and generosity can and arguably should
be done under the radar which is the way
I started many years ago you see
philanthropy is a culture it’s about
making connections rather than raising
as much money as possible with the rise
of online connectivity people are able
to build relationships with
organizations through discussion
volunteering and online activism and I’m
not talking about thoughts and prayers
I’m not talking about petitions or
slacktivism I’m talking about a
community that engages with the mission
and goal of organized
and they choose what speaks to them a
community where region resonance is
limitless the refugee crisis happening
in multiple countries was the cause that
spoke to me last year I went on to very
successful humanitarian missions success
in terms of awareness and fundraising in
July I visited the Zaatari camp in
Jordan the largest Syrian refugee camp
in the world hosting 80,000 Syrian
refugees it was part of an international
campaign I fronted full review on UNICEF
in order to raise money for the Syrian
refugees in December I went to Qatar
Padang camp in Cox Bazaar in Bangladesh
to meet the Ranger people fleeing
Myanmar into Bangladesh that was a trip
with UNHCR and there were 600,000 of
them the two experiences were very
different and very overwhelming as I
walked in the camps and I looked up at
the thick walls and the barbed wire then
looked down at the beautiful art some of
the Syrian refugees drew on the caravans
I couldn’t help but imagine all the
potential in there all the artists the
medics the doctors the tailors the
filmmakers that could exist if they were
given the right opportunities in life to
live and to succeed I wanted to
translate what I was experiencing in the
cab onto social media and what a
difficult task it was because there are
sites there are emotions stories facial
expressions only the eye can comprehend
how can I translate the hole in my heart
the hole that I felt when I saw an
elderly Syrian refugee man crying next
to his fruit I wanted to serve as a
amplify their voices so I gave it my
best shot
I took my followers through a time line
during my trip in Bangladesh who the
Rohingya people are why are they fleeing
then I took my audience into their lives
I got to know individual sufferers and
translated them in a raw and unedited
way their heartaches were scattered on
my 400 or so thousand followers
timelines for a couple of days and out
of all the messages I received and all
the donate
UNHCR may have received the messages
that made me the happiest were the ones
that said that nothing else on the
matter on their timelines mattered for
those couple of days everything seemed
like noise except the heartbreaking and
poignant stories of the refugees and
then people started asking how can I
help
well it took me three days to get to go
to Berlin camp and took hours and hours
listening and absorbing to the stories
of the refugees but it was at the click
of a finger that hundreds and thousands
of people learnt what was happening from
a genuine and unfiltered perspective
this unprecedented power to spread and
share to inform ourselves at our
fingertips the internet specifically
social media where we all meet is the
most democratic means in mass media
we’re able to share debate speak of
research am i rid of topics and yes
there may be censorship sand walls
around in certain places about certain
topics but it doesn’t stop the majority
of us the majority luckier than half of
the world’s population living in the
shadows of the gray wall to speak out
and instead of switching off from our
daily stresses through mindless escapism
through the recurring flick of our
thumbs on those timelines why don’t we
switch on more switch on by appreciating
the blessings in our life and the power
we hold as the lucky half and be aware
of our eco chambers and the potential to
educate ourselves the humanitarian
mission sparked a lot of coverage and
discussion from all the major fashion
publications and more which I was very
very grateful for there is a recurring
question that journalists often asked me
they say to me Jessica what is success
to you and I asked you today what is
success to tea to you is that a number
is it a feeling see I decided at a very
young age that my success the ultimate
success is the imprint I leave behind in
this world as American philosopher and
psychologist William James said the
great use of life is
to spend it for something that will
outlast it I will not see my success
today or tomorrow but long after my
message and the message and actions of
so many other people trying to make a
difference is infiltrated spread and
repeated so today I want you all to
think about this very important idea for
the first time in human history for the
first time ever we are leaving behind
the biggest trace of information about
ourselves for future generations to see
can you imagine that long after we are
gone our great great great great
grandchildren will know what we were
doing in April 2018 everything we have
ever researched posted liked will be at
their fingertips can you now envisage
accessing that kind of information in a
full in the form of a very simple
Instagram account about your ancestors
wouldn’t it be mind-blowing to go
on-line right now and see a visual diary
of hundreds of posts throughout their
lives with dates and captions capturing
their thoughts and emotions what
information did they leave behind what
information are we leaving behind for
future generations to say about us is it
indicative of our stance regarding
humanity at this period of time are we
posting real content did we fight for
causes that mattered most where we
activists in our local communities did
we care about the extinction of certain
species or cared and opened our doors
for refugees will they be proud and will
they say Wow 200 years ago my
great-great-great great-great
grandmother Jessica try to fight for the
marginalized rahaga people and educated
her followers about who they are
individually the 87 year old grandfather
who has fled four times in his life the
13 year old now the head of his
household because both his parents were
killed will they see that I used my
status in the fashion industry and chose
to work with conscionable brands what if
these visual Diaries we create online
are the legacy we leave behind for our
descendants for them to find inspiration
from and continue the story themselves I
would like to conclude with the story of
a young girl who really brought me hope
and encouragement to continue advocating
during my visit to the Zaatari camp in
Jordan I entered a family’s caravan
which hope which happens to be their
home seven family members live there in
not so ideal hot and arid conditions the
family doesn’t have much privacy in fact
the family doesn’t have much at all I
met their eldest daughter a 16 year old
Omaima a moment that I had studied law
and she wanted to so eagerly show me
something in her bedroom which was a
small makeshift area with her bed and
cupboard we went there and she proceeded
to take out a folder from under her and
she showed me the names ages and marital
status of every young girl in that 80
thousand person refugee camp
Omaima in her most dire conditions was
combating child marriage and making
waves so much that she actually reached
media outside who ended up covering her
story as a result she was not only able
to successfully educate parents and
young girls on the disadvantages of
Garrett getting married young but she
actually made a difference and we saw
numbers decline she didn’t see herself
as a victim she thought about them she’s
not only an example of change but change
that occurs within breaking down walls
starting with the communities around us
and build up the story making it so big
we spread it online where it will
forever stay long after we are gone
growing up I was heavily influenced by
Lebanese American writer poet and artist
Gibran Khalil Gibran as many other
Lebanese were he said tenderness and
kindness are not signs of weakness and
despair but stret but manifestations of
strength and resolution we all have
tenderness and kindness within us and if
we channel that towards those whose
have been silenced along with empathy we
hold the power to spread good we possess
the weapon to shatter walls and bring
light to humanity on our timelines and
write stories
future generations will one day read
about thank you [Applause]
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