[Applause]
[Music]
so I just click awesome hi everyone I’m
gonna ask you two questions how many of
you have ever felt like you didn’t
belong how many of you have ever felt
like you weren’t accepted now what if I
were to tell you that that feeling was
part of the magic behind world
domination if you don’t believe me
that’s fine because that’s exactly what
I’m here to do today so let’s rewind a
little bit before I get into the meat
I’m an immigrant I immigrated here when
I was five years old my parents moved us
to America from Japan in pursuit of the
American dream it was simple and when we
first got to America things were pretty
normal you know you had your friends you
had your random going to the library
obsessively because I’m obsessed with
books you had all of these things that
comprised of the life of a kid growing
up and then a day happened that changed
the life of everyone here and it changed
my life forever September 11th 2001 on
that day my childhood as I knew it was
gone forever my mother’s had all of us
down I was now the eldest of six she saw
all of us down and she told us that from
this day forward that we would need to
be careful of how we behaved and how we
reacted in the world because people
would be watching us we were now the
representatives of our faith as a
ten-year-old that is a pretty big
realization to make and it’s something
that followed me as I grew up you know
my identity is pretty visible and in the
reality that we live in today I grew up
very much on the outside the outside of
social circle
having friends was actually a
celebration for me because it probably
happened 1 or 2 times growing up and as
a kid you expect to be a part of social
circles you expect to be a part of the
jokes that people are making having
friends going to sleepovers whatever it
is that didn’t happen often if at all at
one point I’m embarrassed to say it got
so bad that I pretend that there were
fairies in the wall which didn’t really
work but as a teenager I made a vow that
if I ever had the power or the ability
to do something about it that I would
make sure that no woman or girl ever
felt silence censored or otherwise
stereotyped and that followed me through
college and into my first adult job at
Princeton University where I was a
psychology researcher examining how
storytelling and rhetoric affects our
memories and our behavior now I have
this image up here for a specific reason
I’m going to ask you to take a second
and think back to your memory of 9/11
where you were what you were doing and
I’ll give a second for you to pull that
up because I know it’s been a while ok
so here’s the thing your memory of 9/11
is not actually the real memory over the
years what you remember as having
happened has been inter woven with the
stories and experiences of your friends
and family that have shared them over
the years as well as whatever you’ve
read in the news or seen in movies or
heard from politicians and influencers
and so the memory that you have is
really a hybrid one one that you may
think is your own but actually is pretty
far from it and so as a researcher as a
fresh college graduate I realized that
there was something powerful about being
able to decide which stories were being
told
in order to control a larger narrative
this is where I would insert a
diabolical laugh but I promise that
everything I’m doing is for the greater
good so moving on I decided you know
what I have all of this information
let’s try media I was still working at
Princeton at the time and I was up at 3
a.m. as we all want to do right before
going to work or school scrolling
through Facebook and I happened upon the
facebook status of Arianna Huffington
who if you know used to be the owner of
the Huffington Post and she did would do
this thing where she would actually post
her email address in her status updates
it’s random but I took a screenshot and
I thought hey maybe one day I’m going to
shoot her an email and let her know how
awesome she is well that day came a
little sooner than I expected because a
few months later a news story broke out
that was all about Muslim women and
whether or not they belonged in feminism
cue scary like music right and and I’m
sitting there watching the news because
you know obviously I don’t have a job
I’m not trying to work to make my bills
sarcasm I am sitting there following
along and I realized something is
missing and it was pretty big something
it was Muslim women nobody was actually
asking Muslim women what their
perspective was on them being involved
in the feminist movement so I pulled out
Arianna Huffington’s email I think I
just had some coffee so I was feeling
super you know revved up and I can do
this and I had never been published
before but I was annoyed I was
frustrated and I was tired of not seeing
voices like mine represented and so I
sent her a message I said look I’m
Muslim I’m a woman I’m a feminist and I
have an opinion about this and to my
surprise she replied and I published my
first ever article in The Huffington
Post and I posted it to my facebook I
was like great you know my friends and
my family gonna be so proud of me
this is great
I can check it off my bucket list back
to doing other things no the article
went viral and I received thousands of
hate comments fabulous and then I got an
invitation from HuffPost live to
actually debate Appert a woman on the
opposite side of the spectrum right she
had a different opinion than me and so
we’re doing the debate and up until that
moment I was slightly suffering from
some impostor syndrome wondering why I
was the one that had been chosen to
debate this person who called herself a
feminist but then it all clicked because
in a moment she really changed the
trajectory of my life forever
when she told me that in order for me to
continue having a conversation with her
that I would need to take off my
headscarf this was on international
streaming by the way you have a woman
literally telling another woman both of
whom are feminists that one is going to
be silenced unless she removes
a piece of her clothing that she has
chosen to put on and so of course that
was when everything just snapped into
place I ended the debate having
annihilated her whoo-hoo for me
but I realized that there was something
much larger at play why were so many
people uncomfortable and jarred by the
fact that someone who seemed different
was suddenly out on this larger space
why was there why were there so many
hate comments why did she feel
comfortable saying that sort of thing so
I decided why not look into it and I
found some interesting things in the
typical newsroom 88% of the people there
are going to be men specifically white
men 8 to 27% of the folks in the
newsroom are characterized as diverse
which is what you check off you know
when you’re applying to college the
thing that I found most disturbing
however is that in the newsroom or in
media at large 6 only 6%
of media companies including the ones
that are for women okay our run or owned
by women and that’s not just a problem
that affects media this is a problem
that affects the world at large here’s
why when you think about the world even
the most complex issues that are going
on out there
at the core of every one of those issues
is a story if you look at these numbers
who are the people that are controlling
the kinds of stories that were reading
who are the people that are controlling
the types of perspectives that we’re
seeing on those stories that were
reading right and so that is a systemic
issue and as a natural next step for
someone like myself I decided why not
launch my own media company because
huzzah so I started a global media
company called The Tempest which focuses
on changing the narrative of diverse
millennial women in the world and the
reason I called it the tempest is number
one Shakespeare is amazing and number
two we’re not here to just you know
publish a few stories call it a and walk
away that’s not who I am that’s not what
we were looking to do we weren’t looking
to make a few ripples we were looking to
create a storm and what better way to
create a storm than to create a tempest
so I figured that that name would fit in
pretty well so here I have this company
I have everything lined up and I have
the door open and there is nobody there
crickets I thought that women would be
lining up to share their stories turns
out it took me six weeks to get my first
story and the thing that I heard over
and over again from the women that I
approached many of whom weren’t writers
before this was that they felt that
their voices didn’t matter that their
story wasn’t important it wasn’t a story
that others would be interested in
reading and so with that understanding I
realized something when you look at the
world around you and you don’t see your
stories
selected in the news that you’re
consuming and the movies that you’re
watching or if you look at the people
that are being represented if none of
that looks like you then why would you
think that you matter and that was
something that even though you know we
were extremely excited and we got that
first story and a year later now we have
millions of readers from across the
globe we have over a thousand women
writing for us from more than 20
countries on every topic Under the Sun
and a fantastic global team of
contributors and team members super
happy and excited about that not
everything is a bushel of roses cue this
great media coverage last summer I was
picked to be a member of a small
government task force seeking to create
cohesive cultural change in both
communities and America as a whole
now when the report was released and
massive attack wasn’t leashed on me
specifically out of all the members on
the committee because the far out right
was not happy with the fact that someone
with my identity with my background
would be on a task force working for the
US government and working for the US as
a whole and so I got everything from
death threats to hate mail to really
flattering media coverage and we kept
the company running but during that time
I am NOT going to pretend that I was
amazing and having the best time of my
life I was actually terrified for my
life and there were some points where
you know it was really hard to get up
but I realized something that I could
not allow these folks to silence me I
could not allow these people to silence
the thousands of women that were seeking
to get their stories out there and tell
their stories exactly as they wanted to
tell them because there was something
bigger at work here and that something
is the fact that the world today if you
think about it has divided us very
strategically and to differ
groups we’re all about what makes us
different what makes us special what
makes those people different well who we
should hate who we should be attracted
to all of these different norms have
made us uncomfortable to engage with
people that we perceive as the other but
the funny thing is is that when you look
at neuroscience you find that they’ve
that the social connection is actually a
potent thing for human beings and we’ve
quite literally been stripped of that
ability because of our fear of what’s
different and so it makes it so much
harder because the problem there’s a
problem that arises right if you are
uncomfortable having conversations that
are about topics that you might not be
comfortable with with people that you
might not be familiar with then there’s
no progress and when there’s no progress
you’re not challenging the norm when
you’re not challenging the norm then you
are continuing to silence a group of
people a group of people by the way that
makes up 51% of the world known as women
and so that is kind of an issue I think
a little bit and when you kind of look
at what’s going on this sort of lack of
challenging the norm has become the new
normal
how many of you actually see yourselves
in the media that you consume in the
news that you read in the movies that
you watch in the politics that’s being
currently litigated I would reckon that
it’s very few if at all and that’s an
issue because when people are then
uncomfortable with seeing those that are
different like I was the person that was
different last summer then there that
discomfort is going to create a kind of
reaction that isn’t too great and that’s
a bit of an issue that’s why I’m here
though that’s why the tempest does the
work that we do we’re really here to
chant challenge the status quo to
disrupt an otherwise static media
landscape instead of tokenizing or other
minorities and women
we’re here to normalize and allow them
to share their experiences exactly as
they want them to be shared because I
believe that the mission behind it is
really to democratize access to media
and then elevating otherwise silenced
voices that you can shift the direction
of media and as a result shift society
and politics and policies in the world
as a whole so what’s the big secret the
big secret is to amplify women’s voices
because when you start to include people
when you start to feel like you belong
that you’re accepted then that actually
starts a ripple effect an effect in
which you are beginning to influence
decisions that are being made about the
types of movies that are being created
about the types of policies that are
being written about the media that
you’re reading and that’s extremely
powerful that’s something that the world
really doesn’t want us to know about and
once you start knowing that that’s when
you can really create difference so
because we remember the world through
stories here’s a little tidbit for you
your voice matters and if you belong to
51% of the world’s population your voice
matters that much more because at the
end of the day it’s not about silencing
a group of people it’s about elevating
everyone’s voices that’s really how we
can take over the world thank you
[Applause]
[Music]
so I just click awesome hi everyone I’m
gonna ask you two questions how many of
you have ever felt like you didn’t
belong how many of you have ever felt
like you weren’t accepted now what if I
were to tell you that that feeling was
part of the magic behind world
domination if you don’t believe me
that’s fine because that’s exactly what
I’m here to do today so let’s rewind a
little bit before I get into the meat
I’m an immigrant I immigrated here when
I was five years old my parents moved us
to America from Japan in pursuit of the
American dream it was simple and when we
first got to America things were pretty
normal you know you had your friends you
had your random going to the library
obsessively because I’m obsessed with
books you had all of these things that
comprised of the life of a kid growing
up and then a day happened that changed
the life of everyone here and it changed
my life forever September 11th 2001 on
that day my childhood as I knew it was
gone forever my mother’s had all of us
down I was now the eldest of six she saw
all of us down and she told us that from
this day forward that we would need to
be careful of how we behaved and how we
reacted in the world because people
would be watching us we were now the
representatives of our faith as a
ten-year-old that is a pretty big
realization to make and it’s something
that followed me as I grew up you know
my identity is pretty visible and in the
reality that we live in today I grew up
very much on the outside the outside of
social circle
having friends was actually a
celebration for me because it probably
happened 1 or 2 times growing up and as
a kid you expect to be a part of social
circles you expect to be a part of the
jokes that people are making having
friends going to sleepovers whatever it
is that didn’t happen often if at all at
one point I’m embarrassed to say it got
so bad that I pretend that there were
fairies in the wall which didn’t really
work but as a teenager I made a vow that
if I ever had the power or the ability
to do something about it that I would
make sure that no woman or girl ever
felt silence censored or otherwise
stereotyped and that followed me through
college and into my first adult job at
Princeton University where I was a
psychology researcher examining how
storytelling and rhetoric affects our
memories and our behavior now I have
this image up here for a specific reason
I’m going to ask you to take a second
and think back to your memory of 9/11
where you were what you were doing and
I’ll give a second for you to pull that
up because I know it’s been a while ok
so here’s the thing your memory of 9/11
is not actually the real memory over the
years what you remember as having
happened has been inter woven with the
stories and experiences of your friends
and family that have shared them over
the years as well as whatever you’ve
read in the news or seen in movies or
heard from politicians and influencers
and so the memory that you have is
really a hybrid one one that you may
think is your own but actually is pretty
far from it and so as a researcher as a
fresh college graduate I realized that
there was something powerful about being
able to decide which stories were being
told
in order to control a larger narrative
this is where I would insert a
diabolical laugh but I promise that
everything I’m doing is for the greater
good so moving on I decided you know
what I have all of this information
let’s try media I was still working at
Princeton at the time and I was up at 3
a.m. as we all want to do right before
going to work or school scrolling
through Facebook and I happened upon the
facebook status of Arianna Huffington
who if you know used to be the owner of
the Huffington Post and she did would do
this thing where she would actually post
her email address in her status updates
it’s random but I took a screenshot and
I thought hey maybe one day I’m going to
shoot her an email and let her know how
awesome she is well that day came a
little sooner than I expected because a
few months later a news story broke out
that was all about Muslim women and
whether or not they belonged in feminism
cue scary like music right and and I’m
sitting there watching the news because
you know obviously I don’t have a job
I’m not trying to work to make my bills
sarcasm I am sitting there following
along and I realized something is
missing and it was pretty big something
it was Muslim women nobody was actually
asking Muslim women what their
perspective was on them being involved
in the feminist movement so I pulled out
Arianna Huffington’s email I think I
just had some coffee so I was feeling
super you know revved up and I can do
this and I had never been published
before but I was annoyed I was
frustrated and I was tired of not seeing
voices like mine represented and so I
sent her a message I said look I’m
Muslim I’m a woman I’m a feminist and I
have an opinion about this and to my
surprise she replied and I published my
first ever article in The Huffington
Post and I posted it to my facebook I
was like great you know my friends and
my family gonna be so proud of me
this is great
I can check it off my bucket list back
to doing other things no the article
went viral and I received thousands of
hate comments fabulous and then I got an
invitation from HuffPost live to
actually debate Appert a woman on the
opposite side of the spectrum right she
had a different opinion than me and so
we’re doing the debate and up until that
moment I was slightly suffering from
some impostor syndrome wondering why I
was the one that had been chosen to
debate this person who called herself a
feminist but then it all clicked because
in a moment she really changed the
trajectory of my life forever
when she told me that in order for me to
continue having a conversation with her
that I would need to take off my
headscarf this was on international
streaming by the way you have a woman
literally telling another woman both of
whom are feminists that one is going to
be silenced unless she removes
a piece of her clothing that she has
chosen to put on and so of course that
was when everything just snapped into
place I ended the debate having
annihilated her whoo-hoo for me
but I realized that there was something
much larger at play why were so many
people uncomfortable and jarred by the
fact that someone who seemed different
was suddenly out on this larger space
why was there why were there so many
hate comments why did she feel
comfortable saying that sort of thing so
I decided why not look into it and I
found some interesting things in the
typical newsroom 88% of the people there
are going to be men specifically white
men 8 to 27% of the folks in the
newsroom are characterized as diverse
which is what you check off you know
when you’re applying to college the
thing that I found most disturbing
however is that in the newsroom or in
media at large 6 only 6%
of media companies including the ones
that are for women okay our run or owned
by women and that’s not just a problem
that affects media this is a problem
that affects the world at large here’s
why when you think about the world even
the most complex issues that are going
on out there
at the core of every one of those issues
is a story if you look at these numbers
who are the people that are controlling
the kinds of stories that were reading
who are the people that are controlling
the types of perspectives that we’re
seeing on those stories that were
reading right and so that is a systemic
issue and as a natural next step for
someone like myself I decided why not
launch my own media company because
huzzah so I started a global media
company called The Tempest which focuses
on changing the narrative of diverse
millennial women in the world and the
reason I called it the tempest is number
one Shakespeare is amazing and number
two we’re not here to just you know
publish a few stories call it a and walk
away that’s not who I am that’s not what
we were looking to do we weren’t looking
to make a few ripples we were looking to
create a storm and what better way to
create a storm than to create a tempest
so I figured that that name would fit in
pretty well so here I have this company
I have everything lined up and I have
the door open and there is nobody there
crickets I thought that women would be
lining up to share their stories turns
out it took me six weeks to get my first
story and the thing that I heard over
and over again from the women that I
approached many of whom weren’t writers
before this was that they felt that
their voices didn’t matter that their
story wasn’t important it wasn’t a story
that others would be interested in
reading and so with that understanding I
realized something when you look at the
world around you and you don’t see your
stories
selected in the news that you’re
consuming and the movies that you’re
watching or if you look at the people
that are being represented if none of
that looks like you then why would you
think that you matter and that was
something that even though you know we
were extremely excited and we got that
first story and a year later now we have
millions of readers from across the
globe we have over a thousand women
writing for us from more than 20
countries on every topic Under the Sun
and a fantastic global team of
contributors and team members super
happy and excited about that not
everything is a bushel of roses cue this
great media coverage last summer I was
picked to be a member of a small
government task force seeking to create
cohesive cultural change in both
communities and America as a whole
now when the report was released and
massive attack wasn’t leashed on me
specifically out of all the members on
the committee because the far out right
was not happy with the fact that someone
with my identity with my background
would be on a task force working for the
US government and working for the US as
a whole and so I got everything from
death threats to hate mail to really
flattering media coverage and we kept
the company running but during that time
I am NOT going to pretend that I was
amazing and having the best time of my
life I was actually terrified for my
life and there were some points where
you know it was really hard to get up
but I realized something that I could
not allow these folks to silence me I
could not allow these people to silence
the thousands of women that were seeking
to get their stories out there and tell
their stories exactly as they wanted to
tell them because there was something
bigger at work here and that something
is the fact that the world today if you
think about it has divided us very
strategically and to differ
groups we’re all about what makes us
different what makes us special what
makes those people different well who we
should hate who we should be attracted
to all of these different norms have
made us uncomfortable to engage with
people that we perceive as the other but
the funny thing is is that when you look
at neuroscience you find that they’ve
that the social connection is actually a
potent thing for human beings and we’ve
quite literally been stripped of that
ability because of our fear of what’s
different and so it makes it so much
harder because the problem there’s a
problem that arises right if you are
uncomfortable having conversations that
are about topics that you might not be
comfortable with with people that you
might not be familiar with then there’s
no progress and when there’s no progress
you’re not challenging the norm when
you’re not challenging the norm then you
are continuing to silence a group of
people a group of people by the way that
makes up 51% of the world known as women
and so that is kind of an issue I think
a little bit and when you kind of look
at what’s going on this sort of lack of
challenging the norm has become the new
normal
how many of you actually see yourselves
in the media that you consume in the
news that you read in the movies that
you watch in the politics that’s being
currently litigated I would reckon that
it’s very few if at all and that’s an
issue because when people are then
uncomfortable with seeing those that are
different like I was the person that was
different last summer then there that
discomfort is going to create a kind of
reaction that isn’t too great and that’s
a bit of an issue that’s why I’m here
though that’s why the tempest does the
work that we do we’re really here to
chant challenge the status quo to
disrupt an otherwise static media
landscape instead of tokenizing or other
minorities and women
we’re here to normalize and allow them
to share their experiences exactly as
they want them to be shared because I
believe that the mission behind it is
really to democratize access to media
and then elevating otherwise silenced
voices that you can shift the direction
of media and as a result shift society
and politics and policies in the world
as a whole so what’s the big secret the
big secret is to amplify women’s voices
because when you start to include people
when you start to feel like you belong
that you’re accepted then that actually
starts a ripple effect an effect in
which you are beginning to influence
decisions that are being made about the
types of movies that are being created
about the types of policies that are
being written about the media that
you’re reading and that’s extremely
powerful that’s something that the world
really doesn’t want us to know about and
once you start knowing that that’s when
you can really create difference so
because we remember the world through
stories here’s a little tidbit for you
your voice matters and if you belong to
51% of the world’s population your voice
matters that much more because at the
end of the day it’s not about silencing
a group of people it’s about elevating
everyone’s voices that’s really how we
can take over the world thank you
[Applause]
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