The stories, perspectives, and lived experiences of young women through powerful storytelling

Advancing Together Interview Series with Phoebe Saintilan & Hannah Diviney

Phoebe Saintilan is the Founder of Missing Perspectives. She was formerly a Policy Advisor at the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet, the Australian Human Rights Commission, and the UN Secretariat.

Hannah Diviney is the Editor-in-Chief and Creative Lead at Missing Perspectives. She is also a leading disability advocate and author and recently played the lead role in the SBS series Latecomers.

1. We’re constantly reporting on ugly stuff no one else wants to touch but unfortunately, that’s the state of the world for women right now.
2. We’ve made some small but noticeable waves in both the Australian and international industries.
3. The current landscape that we are operating in is very dire. Studies of news coverage from around the world have consistently found more than 70% of people seen, quoted and heard in the news are men.

Read the full Advancing Together Blog HERE.

Launch - when and how? What were you hoping for when you launched it? Is it living up to its inception goals/expectations?

Phoebe: Missing Perspective is a global media company dedicated to platforming the stories, perspectives, and lived experiences of young women through powerful storytelling.

The idea of Missing Perspectives came to me when I was living in Canberra with a young woman working as a journalist in the press gallery at Parliament House. We spoke often about how the news industry can be a challenging place for young women - and how we rarely see young women represented in the news, both as journalists and expert sources. Then I had the idea: how cool would it be to have a media company dedicated to young female storytelling - including current affairs?

One of our key goals is to tackle the continued underrepresentation of young women in the news industry. The current landscape that we are operating in is very dire. Studies of news coverage from around the world have consistently found more than 70% of people seen, quoted and heard in the news are men. When it comes to ‘expert’ sources, around 80% are men. The situation is even worse for young women under the age of 30. Young women are also becoming increasingly disengaged with the news, and that’s also something we want to change.

What sets MP apart from others in the industry?

Hannah: For starters, we prioritise women’s stories on a global scale which no other media company is doing. We also place immeasurable value on lived experience which is not standard journalistic practice. When world events take place whether that be the fall of Kabul to the Taliban, or war erupting in Ukraine, we want to talk to the young people living it. The ones on the ground who have to be there when the news cameras stop rolling and move on.

Actually, to that point, we’re super excited about launching our new app in October, with the support of Google’s News Initiative. The Missing Perspectives Directory will be a first-of-its-kind database and app that connects young female reporters and experts aged 18-30 around the world with leading domestic and international newsrooms.

Phoebe: The Missing Perspectives team has spoken with newsrooms who have found it difficult to source young female talent and experts to both cover and comment on breaking news/current affairs. Our goal is to use the Directory as a tool to transform and restructure the news industry to represent the world more accurately we inhabit as young women - especially for those of us who live in marginalized communities.

The Directory will connect newsrooms with perspectives that are often overlooked or absent in mainstream media. Young women who are registered in the Directory will be able to take on assignments from national and international newsrooms. Newsrooms and media companies will be able to register to access the database. When using the Directory, newsrooms will be able to filter for region, country, lived experience, and theme. It’s a super exciting project that we hope will change the way news is made here in Australia.

Has the industry reacted? How, when, why?

Hannah: We’ve made some small but noticeable waves in both the Australian and international industries namely through securing that Google funding we talked about earlier and a highly visible social media collaboration with Reese Witherspoon’s media company, Hello Sunshine.

Phoebe: Interestingly, we are also seeing mainstream media coming to us whenever they need to be connected with young female journalists or expert sources. It’s a really interesting trend. We seem to have developed a reputation as a media company working with the world’s best young female reporters - and mainstream media is keen to tap into our network (which we happily let them do!).

How do you think mainstream media can do better?

Phoebe: One thing that mainstream media can definitely do better is platforming local reporters rather than flying in a Western correspondent. Local reporters have a more nuanced knowledge of local and regional affairs - and should be the ones telling the stories. A classic example we always point to where mainstream media gets it wrong is when a leading progressive newsroom here in Australia covered the fall of Kabul to the Taliban. The newsroom’s panel covering the developments consisted entirely of white men.

What could’ve been more impactful and appropriate is a) having an Afghan panellist, and b) also a panellist who is a woman. The fall of Kabul is also something that was going to heavily impact women - so in times like these, it’s critical female reporters are platformed. This is where our app is going to fill a clear gap in the news industry: by curating a directory of the world’s top young female reporters, mainstream media will no longer have an excuse to not use these journalists in reporting and coverage.

What are some of the biggest highlights from inception to now?

Phoebe: It’s sometimes hard to believe that it hasn’t even been two years since we launched! Highlights have been receiving funding from Google and a US-based impact venture fund to build and scale our app; partnering with incredible brands such as MECCA to platform the stories of young women around the world; and the North America trip we are about to go on where we’ll be meeting some incredible individuals and companies (watch this space!).

Another highlight is always when one of our articles leads to social impact or policy change. It’s always exciting when this happens and proves that platforming young female stories and perspectives can help overlooked issues get on the radar of decision-makers!

How does MP look now vs when it first launched? Where do you hope to take it from here? Long-term goals?

Phoebe: Over the last two years, we have scaled Missing Perspectives from being a side hustle website to a fully-fledged media company. We have branched out into consulting and advisory work with brands, in addition to exploring publishing and other forms of media. We feel as though our long-term vision has shifted from one focused on news to a broader goal of platforming young female storytelling to drive gender equality and change.

Who are Phoebe and Hannah?

Phoebe: It’s always funny telling people I work in media because I didn’t study or work in media before. My background is in human rights law and policy - which I still find to be relevant and useful when running Missing Perspectives.

One of the biggest challenges I have faced when running Missing Perspectives is being taken seriously as a team of young women with no commercial experience. We have really leant on a team of brilliant advisors, who are leaders across business, news, and philanthropy.

The thing that makes me get out of bed each morning is knowing that there’ll be brilliant pitches sitting in my inbox from our writers all over the world. Stories and perspectives that I wasn’t aware of, and that if platformed by our newsroom, could lead to a social impact or real-world policy change.

Hannah: My background is a little more conventional than what you might expect from Missing Perspectives. I have a double degree in Arts and International Studies, which I use every single day, so all that HECS was worth it! I also have significant experience with media as a result of my career in writing and advocacy. As a marginalised woman, whose experiences often exist as a ‘missing perspective’ themselves, this company is perfect for me in being a real vehicle for the change I want to see in the world.

That being said, running a company this ambitious with this hopeful a slate of storytelling change in every conceivable direction can be exhausting, especially when it’s essentially just the two of us. On top of that, it’s hard not to feel like sometimes we’re the most depressing thing in your feed because we’re constantly reporting on ugly stuff no one else wants to touch but unfortunately, that’s the state of the world for women right now. It’s rough in ways that it simply shouldn’t be in 2023. But it’s that passion for change and belief in something bigger than me that gets me out of bed and that’s a common thread across all my work whether I’m wearing the Missing Perspectives hat or not.

Barack Obama has this quote from back in his community organiser days at a grassroots level in Chicago, “Do we settle for the world as it is, or do we fight for the world as it should be?” That’s a question I answer every day and no matter how hard the slog may seem, as long as we’re trying, the other stuff won’t beat us. Women won’t be silenced.