Snap hosts special International Women’s Day Lens Studio Workshop

• Workshop in partnership with Lean In India, daDigital Empowerment Foundation and Navjyot Fountion
• Theme is ‘From Dreams to Success’ inspired by the words of Kalpana Chalwa to encourage participants to use their creativity to challenge inequality and celebrate women’s achievements.
• Following the workshop, attendees can participate in Lensathon with Skillenza to win prizes

Mumbai, 5 March 2021:  To mark International Women’s Day 2021, Snap will host a special Lens Studio workshop in India, inspired by the global IWD theme of  ‘Choose To Challenge’. To make the workshop as accessible as possible, Snap partnered with Lean In India, Navjyoti India Foundation and Digital Empowerment Foundation to reach out to women across the country.

The workshop aims to introduce young women in India to Augmented Reality and some of the skills that will be necessary to navigate the digital economy of the future. Participants will use Lens Studio – Snap’s free desktop app –  to create and design their own AR experiences, inspired by the wise words of Kalpana Chalwa who in her own way challenged the status quo. After the workshop, they will have two weeks to create and submit their designs based on the theme ‘From Dreams to Success’ for the chance to win some prizes. To learn more and enter the Lensathon, please visit the Skillenza website.

The evening session will be hosted by Snap’s Senior Lens Studio Community Specialist, Kaitlyn Benitez-Strine and Juhi Bhatnagar who leads Strategy and Business Development for Snap in India. The workshop will be streamed on the Lens Studio YouTube channel and Indian Official Lens Creators Chanchal Choudhary, Gauri Kumar, Niyati and Persica Picardo will also be present to respond to questions in chat.

Commenting on the initiative, Juhi Bhatnagar said, “We believe that AR is a really powerful tool for self-expression and see millions of Snapchatters play with it every single day. We built Lens Studio to put this technology in the hands of our community, so that they can unleash their creativity. We’re so excited to host this workshop for young women in India this International Women’s Day. We hope attendees leave inspired to use their creativity to challenge the world around them to make it better for women everywhere.”

Osama Manzar, Founder Director of Digital Empowerment Foundation said, “We are excited about our first ever partnership with Snapchat that will enable access to essential AR skills to many women we work with. At its core, we have always supported the digital movement and believe that upskilling is a necessity for young women. Through Snap’s Lens Studio Workshop followed by the Lensathon, we will bring this shared vision alive of democratising innovative skills such as Augmented Reality and Lens creation. We hope this opens a new pathway for many young women from across the country.”

Shruti Bhatia, Regional Leader of Lean In India said, “We are happy to partner with Snapchat for this International Women’s Day initiative, as we try to expand our footprints to involve more women in technology. We hope this partnership will benefit many young women, especially since the first workshop, will be providing useful insights on using Augmented Reality and lenses as a means of expression. This will definitely give them an insight into the current evolving trends and shifts in the digital world opening doors to a new world of creativity and communication.”

Neetu Sharma Joshi, Director (Urban programs), Navjyoti India Foundation said, “Navjyoti India Foundation extends heartiest congratulations to partner Snapchat for this unique initiative of organising Lens Studio Workshop. We are excited to partner with them and facilitate training of our women beneficiaries on Augmented Reality and Digital literacy on this International Women’s Day. This will not only provide an exposure to an upcoming growth sector to women but also enable us to undertake early identification of latest talent in the area amongst women.”