The ‘Educate our Boys’ campaign came to me almost a year before the Sarah Everard story: the horrific event which sparked a women’s rights movement that impacted and inducted change to Public harassment laws; officially classifying public harassment as a hate crime, as of 2021.
Public harassment has always been a grave act, more often perpetrated by men and boys with the subjects being women and girls; myself having constantly experienced it. I feel strongly that the problem is very much overlooked in society. The notion that ‘boys will be boys’ or ‘it’s only flirting’ undermines the seriousness of the offence, failing to place the accountability where it belongs. I realised there was a communication flaw whereby campaigns created to spread awareness were not reaching their target: boys.
The ‘Our Streets Now’ grassroots organisation was committed to legislatively and culturally end public harassment. I noticed that their platform received a great amount of support from young girls and women but very little from boys and men, therefore I decided to devise a campaign that would target young boys: ‘Educate Our Boys’. In order to speak to a target market one must learn their language. I thought a Nike brand partnership and collaboration with the ‘Gurls Talk’ podcast, an exclusive edition episode, could involve a panel of influential and positive youth role models and create a mergence between feminism, mental health, sports, and music stars to construct an inclusive conversation where young boys would learn about topics covering harassment, toxic masculinity and how they can develop a positive impact and change the narrative.
My name is Isabella Keell. I am a creative, goal-driven individual whose strength lies in the ability to see the bigger picture.
I come from a diverse heritage, being half Bahamian and half English, have grown-up in South India for most of my life, and have lived for some years in the USA. My inspiration comes from different cultures and the experiences have led me to embrace a wide perspective on the world and provided me with skills to understand people and cultural diversities. Some of my aptitudes include Identifying problems and problem-solving, quick thinking, flexibility, and working in groups and partnerships. These abilities motivated me to study PR and Advertising. I am enthusiastic about applying and progressing what I have learned during my momentous time at Westminster University.
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