A busy working day, in the middle of the week, is probably not the best time to be called to an event that is going to start two hours after the given time. Yet the announcement that came after the wait may just have been worthy enough to let that go.
Veet hosted a lunch at The Patio yesterday and while we expected to see the judges and contestants from Miss Veet Pakistan, which also had its grand finale in Karachi last night, we were mistaken. Post lunch we were finally told the reason we had been summoned. Veet Pakistan revamped its ‘Miss Veet Super Model’ format to ‘Miss Veet Pakistan’ this year, the main difference being to find an all rounder female representative, from any field or walk of life. This further inspired the Veet team to establish the ‘Veet Academy’, a mentorship program which aims to provide guidance to young girls in terms of health, fitness, confidence, presentation and other such categories.
The plan, as shared at the event, was to start off by visiting schools and speaking to young women about basics that might be held as taboos in our society, such as self-hygiene, hair removal etc. Fahad Ashraf, Marketing Director of Reckitt, pointed out that most girls across the country do not have the privilege of receiving such basic knowledge and we all know that there are barely any schools or institutes out there that educate their students on personal care. The Veet Academy will also establish an online platform any young girl can reach out to and learn about the same, and much more. This latest venture by Veet brought on board Aamina Sheikh, Hareem Farooq, Musarrat Misbah, Sarwat Gillani and Sidra Iqbal as mentors for the project.
Speaking to Something Haute, Sarwat Gillani told us that she had always been interested in talking about and spreading awareness for issues young girls might face, hence she was immediately interested to be a part of this venture. “I would sit on morning shows and talk about hygiene, which is not very charming, but at the end of the day I felt that somebody needs to do it…unluckily many mothers here don’t have the exposure to talk about those things. I felt like this was one of the things I’ve been meaning to do since a long time.â€
Similarly, Aamina Sheikh shared her experience as a judge for Miss Veet Pakistan, and compared it to the Veet Academy initiative “Not saying that it (previous Veet supermodel hunts) was a frivolous activity at all, but this is definitely something that has longevity, that has a larger impact…â€
Hareem Farooq also shared her views with us, regarding health and fitness, which is her area of mentorship at the Veet Academy. Hareem expressed her dissent for the ‘stereotypical’ girl, which she believes our society tends to reinforce, in terms of skin colour and body image. “I believe in being comfortable in your own skin, being confident and being grateful for what you have,†Hareem told us. Here is a full video of what Hareem had to say:
This latest venture definitely feels more promising and meaningful than Veet’s previous shows and such. The success of it mostly depends on logistics, and whether this is mainly a marketing ploy or a sincere effort to extend a platform to mentor young girls in Pakistan, time will tell. We will be following the story.
