Change, one post at a time: Entrepreneur Masoom Minawala Mehta helps with women empowerment

Fashion blogger, social media influencer and entrepreneur Masoom Minawala Mehta helps women stand up for themselves in the virtual world
Masoom Minawala Mehta
Masoom Minawala Mehta

Masoom Minawala Mehta strongly believes in bringing change, one post at a time. That’s why this fashion blogger and social media influencer with 1.1 million followers on Instagram has been using the platform to motivate women to take up financially stable and viable jobs.

How exactly does she do it? August 7 was National Handloom Day and she reminded them about how they can find their own groove in the sunrise industry of textiles, weaves and fashion. “The textiles and handloom sector in India is the second-largest source of employment to people, after agriculture. Over 70 percent of handloom weavers are women,” she says. She provided young women, who idolise her on social media, with tips, resources, and links to help them branch out on their own. “I could reach around three lakh views in three days and I hope I have made an impact on these girls/women in making them take the first step towards standing up on their feet,” she says.

Mehta has a special love for women-led fashion startups such as Saritoria, launched in 2020. It is the world’s first platform for preloved South Asian fashion. The women-led startup, founded by Shehlina Soomro, Omar Soomro and Pernia Qureshi, gives access to the biggest South Asian designers such as Anita Dogre, Sabyasachi Mukherjee, Anamika Khanna and more.

“Their ideals are ever so inspiring—from championing representation to sustainability, from 
being a force of a woman-owned business to empowering our fashion, it is in line with my values,” says Mehta.Featured in CNN’s ‘20 under 40’ list and HSBC’s worldwide list of female entrepreneurs, Mehta wants women to stand up for themselves in the big, bad world of trolls. Recently she got slammed for her Cannes look, one of the most common points being how short she looked. She was at the Cannes this year in designer Manish Malhotra’s outfit.

She bravely addressed this expressing the pain it causes her and the difficulty of being a public figure. Her followers loved her posts where she addressed the forever judgemental world of social media. Apart from the mass online support she received, it also elicited a comment from Ranveer Allahbadia, the influential YouTuber known by his online name ‘BeerBiceps’, who said, “The world will always pass comments, but that will never change the energy that you carry, Masoom. Rarely come across people with your kind of aura. Keep slaying, queen!” Mehta is also a big hit with those who seek her fashion advice via direct messages. That’s her way of connecting with her ‘InstaFam’, she says.

Currently, she is focussing on her initiative, Empowher, a project that creates content for women entrepreneurs. Here, she dispenses financial advice, branding tips, shares her past experiences and more. She’s proud of a concept Empowher tried out on YouTube during the initial days for Mumbai’s female cops. Shot in 2017 on Republic Day, it lauds these brave women for their choice of occupation, where they spend long hours in the scorching sunlight daily.

Implementing the hashtag #MakingWomenGirlsAgain, the policewomen were given 100 sunglasses to stay protected and stylish while doing their job. “By talking about my journey as an entrepreneur, and sharing my failures and downfalls, normalising them, I hope to inspire the women around me. With this initiative, I also hope to educate business aspirants or owners on the practical aspects of a business—from finances to scaling, etc,” Mehta says.

Mehta has also been featured in  CNN’s ‘20 under 40’ list and HSBC’s worldwide list of female entrepreneurs

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