November 22, 2019, New York, NY— Earlier today, SeeHer, the Association of National Advertisers’ (ANA) leading global industry movement for gender equality in advertising and media, announced that award-winning actress Yara Shahidi has joined the SeeHer advisory board.
Shahidi is an acclaimed actress, producer, and change agent. Recently starring in the YA Romance The Sun Is Also a Star, Shahidi first gained recognition for her starring role as the oldest daughter Zoey Johnson on the sitcom Black-ish and its highly acclaimed spin-off series Grown-ish. She began her acting career alongside her family, all of whom are involved in the entertainment industry. Yara has been awarded an NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress and a Gracie Award for Female in a Breakthrough Role. She is a Glamour magazine Women of the Year honoree and has been twice recognized by Time magazine as one of The 30 Most Influential Teens for her television role and humanitarian work.
Shahidi balances her acting career with her education and her passion for social engagement, consistently speaking out to address issues and spotlight work being done to elevate of the state of our global community. In 2016, she founded Eighteen x 18 (#WeVoteNextSummit) to provide a platform to empower and engage first-time voters during the 2018 midterm elections. Always purpose centered, the young star has made it a priority to put community first and, with her partners, has donated over $500,000 to several organizations including Third Wave Fund, which contributes to a youth-led Gender Justice organization that also works to advance the political power, well-being, and self-determination of communities of color and low-income communities.
A prominent advocate for representation in media, in 2016, Shahidi received the Daily Points of Light Award in recognition of her passion for and commitment to utilizing her voice and platform. During her speech, she eloquently spoke of the importance of representation in the media.
Yara continues to champion STEM programs and resources for young students across the country and to use her platform to advocate for funding for classrooms in need of scientific and technological resources. Shahidi collaborated with the Obama administration on several STEM initiatives including co-hosting the White House Science Fair.
Shahidi comes from a close-knit family of creators. Her father Afshin is a cinematographer and photographer; her mother Keri is Yara’s producing partner and a former commercial actress. Her younger brothers, Sayeed and Ehsan, are also involved in the family businesses.
“Media impacts culture and how we interact with one another on a local and global scale. I am driven to use my voice and platform to raise awareness about the importance of representation in media,” said Shahidi.
Shahidi is the latest addition to SeeHer’s stellar advisory board.
“We are delighted to have Yara, a prominent voice and leader of Gen Z, join our advisory board and inform our strategy to engage this crucial generation for change,” said Christine Manna, president and chief operating officer of the ANA. “With our expanding emphasis on intersectionality, we are also extremely excited to collaborate with her on our targeted efforts to address the unique challenges that marginalized women and girls face in media portrayals.”
About SeeHer
Despite strides made in recent years to accurately portray women and girls in media, gender bias persists throughout advertising and entertainment. The average age, race, and body type of women depicted in media today still represents only small fraction of the female population.
The SeeHer movement is the leading global movement for gender equality in media. Led by the Association of National Advertisers (ANA), SeeHer is a collective of marketers committed to creating and supporting content that portrays women and girls as they really are. It launched in June 2016 in partnership with The Female Quotient (The FQ).
To help marketers benchmark success, ANA’s SeeHer developed the Gender Equality MeasureTM (GEMTM), the first research methodology that quantifies gender bias in ads and programming. GEMTM shows that content that portrays females accurately dramatically increases purchase intent and brand reputation, increasing return on investment (ROI) by as much as 30 percent. GEMTM won the 2017 ESOMAR Research Effective Award, and the methodology became the industry standard, which led to a global rollout in 2018. In 2019 the movement began expansion into new verticals including sports (#SeeHerInSports) and music (#SeeHerHearHer.) Visit SeeHer.com and follow us on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter @SeeHer2020.
About the ANA
The ANA (Association of National Advertisers) makes a difference for individuals, brands, and the industry by driving growth, advancing the interests of marketers, and promoting and protecting the well-being of the marketing community. Founded in 1910, the ANA provides leadership that advances marketing excellence and shapes the future of the industry. The ANA’s membership includes more than 1,850 companies and organizations with 20,000 brands that engage almost 100,000 industry professionals and collectively spend or support more than $400 billion in marketing and advertising annually. The membership is comprised of more than 1,100 client-side marketers and more than 750 marketing solutions provider members, which includes leading marketing data science and technology suppliers, ad agencies, law firms, consultants, and vendors. Further enriching the ecosystem is the work of the nonprofit ANA Educational Foundation (AEF), which has the mission of enhancing the understanding of advertising and marketing within the academic and marketing communities.
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Contact: Patty Kerr pkerr-cw@ana.net
