Let Her Write Her Own Story

The Challenge
Sri Lanka faces a stark gender gap in economic participation. Despite strong educational attainment, women's labour force participation has stagnated at 30–35% for two decades, with a 9.9% female unemployment rate and only 7.7% of working-age women in formal employment. The country ranks 145th globally in female labour force participation, problem that carries a real economic cost estimated at $20 billion in annual GDP.

The Goal
To shift mindsets and inspire more women to enter the labour force. Not just as a matter of social justice, but as an economic imperative for Sri Lanka's future.

The Insight
The root cause isn't just structural, it's cultural. Research revealed that young Sri Lankan women are conditioned from childhood into a dependency mindset, shaped by the stories they are told. Drawing on Abby Wambach (Wolfpack) and Colette Dowling (The Cinderella Complex), the team identified how classic fairy tales socialise girls to wait for rescue rather than act; reinforcing "learned helplessness" and limiting their sense of agency over their education, careers, finances, and lives.

The Idea
Rather than address symptoms, the campaign went to the source: the stories. Let Her Write Her Own Story reimagined two iconic fairy tales (Cinderella and Rapunzel) through the eyes of young girls who didn't celebrate the happy ending, but questioned it. Their response: "I don't want to wait to be saved by someone else."

The fairy tales became a metaphor for the broader cultural machinery that creates dependency and the campaign became a call to dismantle it, empowering women to chart their own path, make their own choices, and reach their full potential.