Popular Johannesburg vlogger, Yolenda ‘Yolz’ Jawe of “Yolz Channel” has partnered with Bill and Melinda Gates for their 2020 Annual letter. Penned by Bill and Melinda Gates themselves, the Annual Letter tackles challenges that the world is currently facing and probing conversation around these important issues. “Yolz Channel” gained popularity with her videos around beauty and natural hair but the channel has evolved into so much more than that. She’s constantly featuring multiple female entrepreneurs, creators and influencers on her channel as she strongly believes in women empowerment. “I feel empowered when I am able to uplift other women through creating motivational YouTube videos and learning from other women who have a different background and story to mine,” Yolz explains.
Her latest video is in collaboration with the Gates and has probed conversation around Gender Equality and challenging the gender roles we still face in society, especially in South Africa. When asked what she believes to be the most important lesson to teach young girls in our society, Yolz said that “It is important to teach young girls, especially in Africa, that they are the authors of their own destinies and they need to vocalize their thoughts and have a voice in every space they find themselves in. They matter and their dreams and visions are valid,”.
Watch her video collaboration here –
With 50 000 subscribers to her channel and over 3 million lifetime views, there is no slowing down for “Yolz Channel”. The 28-year-old is a mom, wife and hold a BCOM Finance & Investment degree, she previously worked as a senior analyst in commercial property investment industry. Yolz left her corporate job of 5 years, to pursue YouTube full-time after earning a consistent income from it, “While I was working in corporate, I felt I needed a creative outlet and used YouTube to channel my energy and explore different ideas that I otherwise couldn’t in my 9 to 5 job. The more I saw my audience interacting with my content, the more motivated I was to be consistent in producing content for them,”
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