When Finland formed a new government that was young and lead by women – all in their thirties – the photograph of the new prime minister’s coalition quickly made the headlines around the globe.  

One of the ways to belittle is using the word “girl” as an insult. 

In this case, the mockery culminated in photo manipulation where Finnish female leaders were altered to look like young children. Image included the headline “girls playing government.” Starting from Reddit the photo started to circulate in Finnish social media sites, in context to mock politicians being females.

Our idea was to turn the insult into inspiration. 

The “What do you see here – Insult or inspiration” tweet was shared and retweeted to the point where it even caught the attention of our Prime Minister – who then, in turn, retweeted without any encouragement from us or Plan.  In one day this insult turned into inspiration reached the people, decision-makers and influencers, making Plan’s message be heard all over Finland. 

The single tweet was viewed over 177 000 times and re-tweeded hundreds of times. That is spectacular for a tiny organisation in a small country, where Twitter has only 300 000 monthly active users. Re-tweeters included e.g. prime minister of Finland and other powerful politicians, media personas and influencers. On Instagram the single post was viewed over 150 000 times and liked over 14 000 times. 

Inspired from support we got from Finland, we created a photo series of powerful woman as a girls. Images were published on International Women’s Day around the globe.