14-year-old dharavi girl becomes face of luxury beauty brand
Maleesha Kharwa, a 14 year old girl from Mumbai's Dharavi slum becomes the face of luxury brand Forest Essentials.
A 14-year-old girl, Maleesha Kharwa, from Mumbai’s Dharavi Slum has become the face of luxury brand Forest Essentials ‘The Yuvati Collection.” Hollywood actor Robert Hoffan discovered Maleesha in 2020. Robert is mainly known for playing the lead actor in the Step Up 2 movie.
He had then set up a Go Fund Me page for Maleesha. Since then, Since then, she has participated in a few modelling gigs. Recently, she was also featured in a short film called “Live Your Fairytale”. Now she has been announced as the face of Forest Essentials’ upcoming “Yuvati Selection” campaign. The social initiative aims to “empower young minds.” Today, the 14-year-old girl enjoys over 225,000 followers on Instagram and often adds the hashtag #princessfromtheslum to her posts.
In April, the brand shared a fascinating video on Instagram that showed Maleesha entering their store, which had her campaign photos. In the caption, the brand wrote, “Her face lit up with pure delight, to see her dreams in front of her in sight. Maleesha’s story is a beautiful reminder that dreams really do come true. #BecauseYourDreamsMatter.”
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Sharing Maleesha Kharwa’s first video as the face of the new collection, Forest Essential said, “There’s beauty in every step of the journey, and we are celebrating it, one ritual at a time.”
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Meanwhile, in an interview with Vogue India, Mira Kulkarni, the founder and chief managing director of Forest Essentials, said, “Through our Yuvati collection, we are not only supporting Maleesha’s dreams but also contributing to Project Paathshala to empower young minds. The brand will donate 10% of the proceeds from the Yuvati Selection towards Project Paathshala to provide children from underprivileged backgrounds access to education with the hope of a brighter India.”
Maleesha said that her campaign with Forest Essentials is her “biggest job till date.” Further, she added, “I want to be a model, but education will always come first for me.
Ms Kalinga