Story Changes Culture Newsletter receives Excellence Award for writing and community

The Academy of Interactive and Visual Arts recognizes our forum for women’s stories

By Jennifer Cloer

Newsletters are a thing right now. Everybody seems to have one, from our favorite book authors and reporters to social media influencers and companies.

That’s why being recognized for our newsletter means so much to us. It means the work we’re doing to elevate women’s stories is breaking through. It’s breaking through the clutter, the noise, the chaotic media environment to connect. And in doing so, we’re all disrupted, transformed, inspired and informed. It’s building community and changing culture.

We have featured women in policy, women in tech, women poets and writers and advocates, women in media and women in film. Storytellers, all of them, each story both unique and universal.

“Women need a space to come together to share stories and gather energy and momentum to keep the torch of change alive and growing.”

--Juli Schneiderman

“And it just struck me AGAIN that female founders need more females in the room making the decisions on who gets the money because there are products that are disruptive and highly scalable that many men might not see or understand.”

--Cara Turano

“And there’s something about femininity and womanhood here too, I think. Notions of who we are (and aren’t) allowed to be. Notions of who we allow ourselves to be.”

--Rachel Clifton

The Story Changes Culture Newsletter is the evolution of the Chasing Grace Project, the award-winning docuseries we produced and screened around the world. It shared the real experiences of women in the workplace, never shying away from the hard conversations. When the pandemic hit, we knew we couldn’t travel to film women in their offices and homes so we started the newsletter to continue our work. We’d found through hundreds of interviews that time and time again women rise from adversity to start businesses, start communities, build and lead teams and create completely new models for the workplace. We needed to ensure their stories could continue to be told and shared so this innovation never stops.

Thank you to the AIVA for seeing the value in this work.

Thank you to all the women who have shared their stories with us and to our subscribers, who support women’s voices. You’re the biggest part of this award-winning newsletter and community and we celebrate you.

We also won an Award of Distinction for our commitment to Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, which represents our values and from which we will never waiver.

You can subscribe to the Story Changes Culture newsletter here.