Anushka Joshi Unification Honoree

Anushka Joshi is using storytelling as a tool for social change

Education through entertainment 

As a young Indian woman, Anuskha Joshi has felt the personal impact of gaps in media representation. “I believe that the media we consume has a profound impact on how we view the world,” she said. “What we read, hear, watch, and see influences our thoughts, behavior, and actions. Consuming and sharing media is a form of activism if we can properly tell underrepresented stories and mask education through entertainment.” 

"Consuming and sharing media is a form of activism if we can properly tell underrepresented stories and mask education through entertainment.” 

When Anushka started high school, she wanted to be the Editor-in-Chief of a cultural magazine like Vogue and reinvent it to be inclusive and regard social change. But soon, she took a class focused on designing media for social change. She co-founded a Gen Z-focused publication for her capstone project, and the project grew from there. “From a young age, I understood the impact that the media had on our minds,” she said. “It started from a personal experience of not feeling represented in popular culture as a young Indian woman, but I expanded my mission to designing media for social change at large.”

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Collective voices

Anushka is the Co-founder & Editor-in-Chief of GEN-ZiNE and a student, writer, activist, and budding entrepreneur from Palo Alto, CA. She and her team educate their readers on various social issues and provide them with language and tools to take critiques from text into action. “By encouraging deep and critical thought about the world, GEN-ZiNE is a place to educate and inspire action,” she said. “We are a community of writers, thinkers, and artists who come together to voice our concerns and cultivate a deeper understanding of contemporary issues and responses to them.”

As an exceptional Gen Z’er using her voice for good, Anushka was honored for her commitment to Unification through The ConversationaLIST. “We want to encourage young minds to think critically and expand the breadth of table topics for conversation,” she said. “I strive to make activism accessible and digestible for regular young people.”

“I strive to make activism accessible and digestible for regular young people.”

Anushka said that Gen Z’ers who are still looking to find their voice should simply start sharing it. “When you share it with others, it allows you to bond with people who resonate with your ideas,” she said. “Building community around your collective voices is how you find your voice.”

In the coming years, Anushka envisions herself continuing in the education and advocacy space. “I love working in storytelling, but I also want to create impact-driven businesses,” she said.

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Learn, listen, amplify

Anushka resonates with The Conversationalist’s mission because she is proud of her generation for building spaces to engage with each other and help make a mark on the world.

For Anushka, a unified world is filled with compassion, love, and acceptance of one another and the way we interact with each other. “[Gen Z can] learn, listen, amplify, and consciously build a more representative society,” she said. 

“[Gen Z can] learn, listen, amplify, and consciously build a more representative society.”

To break open her echo chambers, Anushka explores narratives that are not part of her immediate community. To navigate difficult conversations, she tries to ask people who disagree with her why they have the perspective they do. “Understanding where their perspectives come from also allows them to hear that maybe their information isn't coming from a place they can trust,” she said.

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Big snaps to Anushka Joshi for her commitment to representing all voices in her work. Keep up with her on Instagram and follow GEN-ZiNE to learn more about her work.

Come hang out with Anushka and all of our LIST honorees! Join us in Geneva and follow The Conversationalist on Twitter, Instagram, and TikTok to stay up to date with all of our future events.