
Telling Stories, Changing Lives
The Girl Effect Mobile Project
White Rice x Nike Foundation
CONTENT STRATEGY & DESIGN
Challenge
Mobile storytelling is a powerful tool in a world where mobile usage is continuously increasing among youth. Working in 60 countries, Girl Effect is a non-profit initiated by the Nike Foundation, aimed at using media and mobile technology to empower girls to change their lives.
Approach
White Rice worked with Girl Effect to develop and inform stories that resonate with girls from marginalized communities across Pakistan.
We conducted human-centered research to develop behavioral insights on prevailing mindsets about issues concerning girls. Through these insights, we created stories that educate girls on critical life-skills while inspiring them culturally, visually, and creatively.
Girls were actively involved in activities like discussing mood boards and drawing pictures of the ‘ideal’ girl. We analyzed perceptions to design styles and storylines that appealed to the aesthetic and aspirations that ran across backgrounds. The insights we gathered during the research process and integrated into the form, content, and interface design of the stories.
Following panel testing, we developed stories around the critical topics of reproductive health, voice and participation, financial wellbeing, and safety to be prototyped against the audience panel, reviewing key aspects of character design, narrative, and storyline.
These mobile stories were made accessible to users without internet access by being made available on Facebook’s free internet platform – internet.org.

Impact
Just 12 months after its launch, Springster, the new name of the mobile platform, reached nearly 16 million users across the world. Girls across Pakistan were able to access a supportive virtual community through the platform offered by Girl Effect.

Have a project in mind? Get in touch, and let’s work together!