Teens Take Over JWT London's Social Channels for International Women’s Day

On International Women’s day, J. Walter Thompson London is putting its social channels in the hands of the four teenage winners from its Young Tribes Day. The 15 and 16 year old girls from Streatham and Clapham High School will ‘take over’ its Twitter and Facebook channels for two weeks with content and copy curated by themselves with guidance from the agency.

Called the JWTeen Two Week Takeover (#JWTeenTakeOver) the girls will have full creative license to develop the messaging and give them a voice to discuss how gender issues affect their everyday lives.

A key piece of content will be an interview with their local MP, Chuka Umunna which the girls set up independently and handled face-to-face. They asked him important questions around female issues and what International Women’s Day means to Mr Umunna’s place in parliament.

Young Tribes launched in 2016 with J. Walter Thompson staff presenting to year 10s in all types of schools all across London and culminated in December at an all-day event at J. Walter Thompson London offices. Thirty-eight Year 10s from nine schools heard presentations, had meetings with staff, tackled a live Wagamama brief with help of JWT mentors and presented their campaign idea back to a group of industry leaders and influencers.

The challenge was eventually won by a team from Clapham & Streatham High School who are the school group participating in the JWTeenTakeOver.

The Young Tribes Programme is a merger of two key agency programs, JWTeach and Female Tribes. The program aims to drive the message of strong female role models, diversity and inclusion and the need to inspire young people -  from all schools around London and from all backgrounds - to consider careers in Advertising.

James Whitehead, Chief Executive at J. Walter Thompson London, said: “The young women who came into our agency for the Young Tribes Day were intelligent, talented and inspirational. The winning team from Clapham and Streatham showed great potential for a career in advertising.  We wanted to give them the platform to continue creatively expressing this.  We can’t wait see  how they do this using our social channels.” 

Kachanda, student at Streatham and Clapham High School, said: “The Young Tribes Day opened up our eyes to the possibilities for young women like us in the advertising industry. To be given the opportunity to share our ideas further and have full creative control is really exciting, and the research we’ve done on positive female role models and events for this project has been really inspiring.”