Today, Stylist.co.uk has announced its Speak Up collaboration with TV presenter and personality, Laura Whitmore. The collaboration sees Laura take over the website – along with a team of female writers –  to shine a light on the day’s most important headlines, challenge the status quo, spark debate, encourage conversation and champion women’s voices in support of the Visible Women campaign. 

Stylist’s Visible Women campaign, which launched in January 2018, aims to give more women a voice and champion gender equality. Stylist observes how women are underrepresented in positions of power and influence, and looks at a recent survey of bylines and editorial photographs in the print editions of The Times, Financial Times, Guardian and Daily Mail has revealed that three quarters (77%) of comment articles are written by male journalists. Two thirds (65%) of all articles in the news and business sections of the newspapers are by men and national newspapers in the UK are mostly written by male journalists, despite the fact that women make up nearly half of the profession.
 
Laura Whitmore published an article on the #MeToo movement earlier this year. Her essay about being sexually violated in a nightclub sparked such a debate around the general objectification of women by men and the media. 

Laura will be collaborating with the Stylist team creating exclusive content such as:
 
•    An open letter from Laura Whitmore
•    Things you should never say to an Irish woman
•    Why we need to stop comparing our average to everyone else’s
•    The books that Laura Whitmore wants everyone to read
•    ‘Courage is a muscle’
•    And much more!
 
Laura Whitmore comments, 'Thanks to widespread internet reach, we know about things that would otherwise be happening in far-flung corners of the earth. But, with so many stories pouring into our newsfeeds, it can be hard to stay engaged. That’s why I think it’s more important than ever before to talk about the day’s headlines, form opinions and make our voices heard. As an avid reader and massive fan of Stylist, I can’t wait to take over their website for the day and get people talking about the news again. Inspired by my new radio series, Laura Whitmore’s Sunday Session on BBC Radio 5 Live, we will be covering everything from the top news stories of the day to the amusing ones that went unnoticed. There’s also in-depth interviews, as well as lots of banter and debate. You can expect my day with Stylist to very much reflect the many interests I have, make use of my journalistic background and embrace my natural curiosity. I can’t wait to get started!'

Kayleigh Dray, digital editor at Stylist comments, 'Laura Whitmore is a brilliant journalist and presenter. With her help, we hope to help our readers rekindle their love for the news – no small feat, in a world of 24-hour rolling headlines – and encourage them to make their voices heard, whenever and wherever they can.'

Send me the free DIARY daily of industry updates