Creadoras Camp Incubator of Feminist Influencers

Increasingly, social media has become the first point of contact for youth radicalization. Authoritarian governments like Bukele’s in El Salvador produce at least 200 posts daily on social media, combining “troll farms” and paid influencers to create content in favor of his regime. To counter fake news, political manipulation, and misinformation, we must produce more content with quality information and the capacity to change radical and polarizing narratives. How do we foster a digital environment with alternative narratives for progressive change?

The feminist and LGBTQ+ movements in Latin America have historically struggled to reach audiences under 18 years old because much information on sexual and reproductive rights is taboo for schools, parents, and religious institutions involved in education, something widespread in Latin America. To provide truthful and timely information to women and girls and gender non-conforming people, we must dismantle a series of prejudices instilled in them since childhood. How do we speak to young people first? How do we speak to new audiences outside the feminist movement?

Human rights movements in Latin America have a communications problem: often, their messages are too technical, the tone too institutional, and it does not connect with broader audiences. What if, instead of forcing activists to become reluctant communicators, we find the best, most original, bold, creative, and charismatic communicators in the region and turn them into activists?

Young content creators are interested in being agents of change. Still, they frequently do not have the knowledge and tools to spread quality information among their audiences, and they are usually not articulated with social movements. On the other hand, social movements need strong networks of activists and friends to share strategies and build regional and inter-generational articulations to be sustainable. How do we connect social movements with young digital content creators so that they can create narratives in social media in favor of human rights? 

Creadoras Camp is an innovative strategy to engage young Latin American and digital content creators with the defense of women’s rights, bringing the ideas of feminism to new young audiences throughout the region. 

Credible influencers + audiences = Quality information on feminism, human rights, and sexual and reproductive rights based on trust and authenticity. We find the most original and charismatic content creators and bring them into the Human Rights movements. 

Creadoras Camp is a training process that:

• Trains young digital creators in contemporary feminisms

• Builds community for sustainable activism

• Enhances their skills in creating digital content

• Forms influencers to have a social and economic impact

• Connects digital content creators with 

In each virtual cycle, 10 Creadoras, selected through an open call, take courses on Latin American Feminisms, Humor and parody, Illustration, Podcast, TikTok, Community Engagement, Sustainability of the work of digital content creators, Strategies for viral content, Project and time management, LGBTIQ+ Rights and Theory of Diversity, and Antiracism. Afterward, they have one month to create and publish a feminist content project, with a one-to-one mentorship with our teachers, lead activists, and content creators in the region. Each project is published in their networks, reaching diverse audiences. Collective audiences of the Creadoras Camp Network, more than 1,500,000 social media subscribers in Latin America, most of them between 18-24 years old.

Our most direct beneficiaries are Latin American content creators (women and gender non-conforming). 

Our secondary beneficiaries are their audiences, who range between 10-30 years old, depending on the content of each Creadora. 

Social movements in the region will gain allies to communicate their issues to other audiences. 

Democracy, in general, because the content of the Creadoras Network counters anti-rights speech permanently. 

There are some trainings for content creators (there has been a boom in the last year) but they do not have a human rights or feminist perspective and they do not correct creators responsibly to the causes of social movements. 

Creadoras’ mentors are pioneers in feminist digital content creation for social media in Latin America and leaders of vanguard strategies for social movements: feminist journalist Catalina Ruiz-Navarro (Colombia-México), body neutrality activist and professional influencer Adriana Convers (Colombia), economist and media engagement expert Ita María Díez (Colombia), podcast producer Laura Ubaté (Colombia), journalist and comedian Tamara de Anda (México), illustrator and graphic designer for El Surti, Jazmin Acuña (Paraguay), LGBTQ+ lawyer Alehlí Ordóñez  (México), cultural economist Diana Cifuentes (Colombia), afro feminist activists and academics Sher Herrera (Colombia) and Carolina Mayo (Colombia), illustrator and afro-queer activist Carolina Urueta (Colombia), sex and reproductive rights educator and Tik Tok sensation and former Creadora Hescarleth Membreño (Guatemala), and Wayuu feminist activist Ediana Ipuana (Wayuu-Colombian).

Our regional network to counter anti-rights discourse across the region currently includes 73 Creadoras and 12 expert mentors, representing 85 members across the continent. We have trained Creadoras con México, Guatemala, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Honduras, Costa Rica, Panamá, Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador, Bolivia, Perú, Chile, Paraguay and Argentina. 

Adding up the followers of all the platforms of our fellows, we have a total of 1,927,226 followers. We estimate that our reach is 2,235,582 people. (This Number results from multiplying our Audience by our Average Reach: 1.16. The Average Reach is the average of ratios between Followers and Reach for each Creadora in 3 months). For each cycle the, Creadoras produce 10 packages of feminist content, which usually ranges around 50 publications and at least 100 individual pieces created during the workshop. We estimate that each piece reached an audience of between 200 and 1000.

Creadoras Camp is a model of training designed in Latin America that promotes horizontal relations in the creation of knowledge and deals with the effect of patriarchal structures in a society that also deals with racism and class disparity in a region that faces the consequences of climate change, capitalism, and exploitation. Moreover, this model can be translatable to other areas with similar conditions, specifically those postcolonial countries grappling with imperialism's effects and deep inequalities.

In the last three years, we have been measuring our impact in four areas:

• Massive Audience: Guatemalan Creadora, Hescarleth Membreño, began the training with 1,500 followers on TikTok and in only nine months later gained over 1 million, a growth of 66,567%. She’s a reference in sexual and reproductive health education.

• Political Incidence: In 2021, when she was eight months pregnant, Creadora Lucia Beltrán composed and performed a reggeaton song to defend abortion in alliance with the "Causa Justa” movement in Colombia. It became a TikTok challenge and a recurring chant in feminist marches. Due to a legal claim from Causa Justa, the Constitutional Court ruled in 2022 that abortion is legal for up to 24 weeks.

• Personal Growth: Mexican Camper Aña Yañez found a safe space and a support network that helped her realize she was a victim of domestic abuse and empowered her to leave this context. She used the Creadoras grant for content creation to move to a different city and kickstart her second-hand clothing business.

Our work is framed in the fifth Sustainable Development Goal: To achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls. Our main targets are 5.1, End all forms of discrimination against all women and girls, especially driving cultural and social change; 5.6, Ensure universal access to sexual and reproductive health and reproductive rights, and we do this through the dissemination of timely information in social media; and 5.b, Enhance the use of enabling technology, in particular information and communications technology, to promote the empowerment of women.

In 2024, we will:

• Train 10 new young Latin American digital content creators (cisgender women, trans, and non-binary) to talk about feminism in their social networks and counterspeech the anti-rights discourse. 60% will be based in México and Central America. 

• Produce and publish 10 packages of feminist and LGBTI+ digital content promoted throughout the region and posted on social media. 

• Foster the  Creadoras Network, reaching more than 93 Latin American feminists and digital content creators. 

• A year after the training, we will reach an estimated audience of at least 2 million people (and growing) in various countries in the region.

By 2029, we aim to:

• Have trained a total of 123 new young Latin American digital content creators (cisgender women, trans, and non-binary) to talk about feminism in their social networks and counterspeech the anti-rights discourse. 

• Foster the  Creadoras Network, reaching more than 143 Latin American feminists and digital content creators. 

• Reach an estimated audience of at least 1.8 million people (and growing) in every Spanish-speaking country, the region, and Brazil.

Inputs: 

• To train and mentor new diverse and feminist voices to contribute to the diversity of the digital content creation cultural industry in Latin America by providing a human rights and feminist perspective.

Outputs:

• Capacities and skills in Latin American feminisms and digital content creation are delivered to train 10 new young Latin American influencers.

• Online conversations about Human Rights are kindled in response to 10 packages of feminist digital content produced and published in the social media accounts of the grantees. 

• The Creadoras Latam Network and community, with more than 70 women and gender non-conforming feminist digital content creators in Latin America, grows in number of members and amplifies its reach. 

Outcomes:

• Strengthen alternative narratives for progressive change in the Latin American digital environment. 

• Amplifying the reach to young Latin American audiences outside of the human rights movements. 

• Connect social movements with young digital content creators so that they can create narratives in social media in favor of human rights.

Evidence:

Recordings of the 11 online sessions are imparted to the grantees. 

At least 4 testimonies of the campers in the report show their commitment to continue producing feminist content. 

At least 10 packages of feminist digital content throughout the region were produced and published on the respective social media of the campers.  

Proof of the delivery of at least small grants.

1 Creadoras Latam Network report to determine if members actively publish feminist content and a survey to the audiences of at least 4 grantees to measure their change in social attitudes. 

Main staff: 5 (Director, Co-director, administrative officer, community manager, graphic designer)

Mentors: 5

Workshop facilitators: 10

3 years. 

The inequality in our societies is self-evident on social media, where women, especially feminists, gender non-conforming people, and racialized people, face online harassment that usually forces them to go silent. This expels their voices from public debate. To resist online harassment, we need a community committed to inclusion, where diverse people can reclaim these spaces and give information about their rights. 

The Creadoras Network has 73 members based in México, Guatemala, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Honduras, Costa Rica, Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador, Bolivia, Perú, Chile, Paraguay, and Argentina: 49% are LGBTQ+, and 7% are transgender or gender-nonconforming,  36% are based in México and Central America, 25% are racialized, and 5% belong to an indigenous community (Maya, Wayúu, or Aymara), 15% are migrant, 18% are neurodiverse, and 2% have a physical disability. In our network of mentors and teachers (15), 33% are racialized women, and 25% are LGBTQ+. 

Value Proposition: we train Latin America's most original and charismatic digital communicators in feminisms and human rights to become organic allies of social movements. 

Type of intervention: a virtual workshop and the maintenance of a virtual network of trained feminist digital content creators (creadoras).

Beneficiary: 10 digital content creators in Latin America per virtual workshop, their audiences, and local social movements in the region that need their message in social media. 

Customer: International philanthropy finances most of our operations. 

Customer Value proposition: Financing Creadoras Camp is crucial to promote alternative and human rights affirmative narratives in social media, creating a more progressive and less polarized digital environment in the region.

Impact Measures: Internal report for each cycle, bi-annual surveys to the audiences of the trainees to track narrative change. 

Channels: Social media such as Instagram, TikTok, X, WhatsApp, Zoom, and Google Forms.

Key Activities: Fundraising, Open call for participants, 11 workshop courses imparted in two weeks, mentorships for the content creation projects, publication of the projects, financial and narrative reports. 

Key Resources: Internet, computers, cell phones, know-how to our workshops, salaries for people who work on the project. 

Partners and Key Stakeholders: content creators, donors, mentors, and teachers in the Creadoras Network, previous grantees that compose the Creadoras Latam Network, our staff, social media companies, social movements, and grantees’ audiences. 

Cost Structure: salaries for staff, teachers, and mentors; grants for the feminist content creation projects; taxes.

Surplus: The Creadoras Camp project is handled by Fundación Hoja Blanca ONG, which is a non-profit organization registered in Colombia and with an Equivalency for the United States; thus, we cannot have profit. We invest our surplus in strengthening the program and the foundation, for example, in workshops so that our staff and the network can learn new skills. 

Revenue: 100% of our income now comes from international philanthropy. We have received funding from Planned Parenthood, Wellspring, and the Addey Fund. 

At the moment, we fund our project with grants from international philanthropy. We are working on a virtual paid course platform to offer 1 virtual Creadoras Workshop per month, with 4 hours of synchronic classes.