Celebrating Female Storytellers

Photo Credits (L-R): Taylor Jewell (Invision/AP), Xavier Collin (Image Press Agency), Carlo Allegri (Reuters)

This International Women's Day, we honor inspiring female storytellers who have touched our team's various stages of life through music, movies, and books.

Aanchal - J.K Rowling

JK Rowling's struggle to publish has forever changed the way I see challenges in my life.

I think I was 15 at that time, I had just finished watching the entire Harry Potter Series for the first time. The next day I went to my school library to learn more about the Author, J.K Rowling, because I always thought, an author’s life was full of success and fulfillment. However, when I took a deeper dive into her biography, I was amazed by the struggles she faced and how she overcame her obstacles.

During her 90s, J. K. Rowling left an abusive marriage and became a single mother who struggled to raise her daughter by herself and had financial struggles throughout that phase of her life. After such dark days, she picked up her writing journey again and wrote about her debut Harry Potter series, and shockingly, she received 12 rejections from the publishers.

Many publishers told her that her story was too long for the kids and it may just end up in a pile of unused manuscripts. Despite the rejections, she worked hard for several years and remained persistent in getting her stories published. A small publishing house known as Bloomsbury Publications finally accepted her manuscripts and published the first 1,000 copies. Of course, her success continued and as of today her books have sold over 600 million copies globally and have been translated into more than 82 languages. And let’s not forget the beloved Harry Potter movies that have captured the hearts of many people.

This is something that really inspired me. I still remember when I first started my career in the sales industry, I faced many rejections before eventually achieving my targets. There were days when I wanted to give up. I felt depressed from time to time and wanted to move on to something else. But I decided to put faith in myself again, worked hard, and finally started to see results. Her journey reminded me that persistence and determination are essential, even when I face setbacks. It's a lesson for anyone who’s tempted to give up after years of hard work.

‘Alyaa - Taylor Swift

It is 2011, a friend sends me a link. That link brings me to a video of a blonde teenager wearing a gown, singing a song called “Love Story”, and suddenly, a Swiftie was born… It’s been 13 years and there are a couple of reasons why I still admire Taylor Swift. Her dedication to the fans, her tenacity in taking ownership of her music, and her ability to be knocked down, only to come back stronger than a 90’s trend. But ultimately, the reason why she holds a special place in my heart, is the influence her approach to storytelling has had on my own.

She’s vulnerable in a way that other songwriters aren’t, and that’s pushed me to explore how I could “show not tell”. For the past 17 years, Taylor’s grown from that 15-year-old teenager to the multi-hyphenate she is today. And through it all, she's always been raw in penning what she's felt along the way. While she's been through experiences unique to her, she's also been through experiences that we, in our ways, have been through too. Add to that her ability to explore complex emotions, and there’s a relatability in her songs that connects at a deeper level. You're not just heartbroken - you're a crumpled piece of paper. You're not just in love - you're so in love that you hear it in the silence. You're not just moving on - you're breathing after the rain's done drowning you, that you finally feel clean. The way that she's able to bring the emotional complexity of what you're feeling into words always leaves me in awe.

Now that Taylor's begun diving into directing, I've started to appreciate her visual storytelling, and it's inspired me to give any creative projects a deep visual dive. Her lyrics are given even more depth and complexity with seemingly menial details, that build for a stronger overall story. Take the Eras Tour for example (spoilers ahead) – the led floor "shattering" during Delicate to mirror the fragility of relationships, her dancers freezing when Taylor points to and "puppeteers" them during Mastermind, or during Anti-Hero when the oversized Taylor on screen is throwing a fit to be seen, only for the audience to keep their eyes on the life-sized Taylor that's singing on stage. With that level of attention to detail, something new is revealed every time you look at it. That’s played a huge part in how I approach creative projects to this day.

It amazes me that 17 years on, Taylor is still able to consistently bring her storytelling to new heights. For as long as she puts pen to paper and keeps creating new forms of art for her fans to enjoy, I'm always going to feel a push to see how far my creativity can grow. And that, to me, is what makes Taylor a great storyteller.

William - Celine Song

This post contains spoilers for the film Past Lives. It's an incredible film and I would recommend skipping my part of the post if you haven't already seen it :)

Celine Song recently directed the movie Past Lives. A film about a young girl who emigrates from South Korea, leaving her childhood sweetheart behind. Decades later, they are reunited to confront the past, love and the choices they make in life. The film stood out for me because she chooses to explore relationships from all perspectives - she gives empathy to all the characters in her story.

In the story, the main character had the chance to explore a relationship with her childhood sweetheart at one point before she eventually met her husband. When he gets in touch again after she's married to someone else, she feels compelled to connect with both him and the parts of herself that she left behind when she emigrated.

The childhood sweetheart, for many years has not been able to forget the girl who moved to America. And when he decides to connect with her again, Celine chooses to treat his character, not as a malicious person looking to wreck a home, but with sympathy for someone who never fully got to say goodbye.

The husband also plays a very non-traditional role of the third wheel. He is not jealous or threatened by the sudden appearance of his wife's childhood sweetheart. Instead he is understanding of both his wife and her childhood sweetheart's conflicts. Of course he has questions, but he chooses to accompany both of them to dinner as they converse in a language foreign to him and gives them space to explore the closure they need.

Past Lives is Celine Song's directorial debut having come from playwriting in theatre. Despite it being the first film she’s made, she absolutely smashes it out of the park with how much depth and complexity she gives her characters and delicate subject matter. Life very rarely mirrors the linear narratives we're presented in mainstream stories. And I'm so excited to follow what she does next and how she's able to portray our human experiences with the same honesty and insight as she's done in her first outing.