Members On Their Way: Natasha Akib

Natasha Akib’s fascination with storytelling began when she was just 10. From a Muslim family, growing up in Western Sydney, she watched the events of September 11 unfold on TV – and felt first-hand the very real impact narratives in Australia’s mainstream media had on her community. Wanting to “change the media from the inside-out” led Natasha to study journalism. She was “inspired by [the] experience” and went on to work at one of the very first non-government newspapers in Bhutan. Now, she truly believes “media can be used to promote the positive and disrupt the negative” which is what led her to join filmmaking agency Digital Storytellers back in Sydney. Here, Natasha shares a few of her favourite things, including elevating marginalised voices, dancing to Lizzo and Future Women’s events.

I joined Future Women because I am continually inspired by the badass women in my life – and wanted to find a way to connect with more of them. I investigated a few female networking groups and found many of them lacked diversity and had a very narrow focus, usually focusing only on businesswomen. Then I stumbled across Future Women!  What has helped me most so far is connecting with incredible women at the events I’ve attended. Their vulnerability in sharing the messiness of their lives, their imperfect processes and their doubts has been so generous. I think when we can all ‘get real’ with each other we can collectively shake some of the anxiety and insecurity that we carry!