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What we can all learn about life from YouTube's 'Soft White Underbelly'

Photographer Mark Laita of Soft White Underbelly
Photo courtesy of YouTube

Across the globe, there are many experiences and perspectives that people face that shape their lives.

And with the world first going into lockdown in March 2020 as the rise of Covid-19 ensued, many of us experienced a new way of life that has changed our outlooks on things as we know it.

The same thing happened to me.

Last year was an interesting time because it made me and others sit back and stay at home unless you had to make a trip to the grocery store. It was a bit frightening initially because I'm from the United States and wasn't entirely accustomed to a state of emergency like a widespread infectious disease.

Also, not knowing what the future of society would be, and how long we would be in a lockdown ran through my mind.

After pondering on those thoughts for the first week of the pandemic, I decided to make the most of the time by journaling, reading, and binging YouTube videos that made me feel positive or taught me something about life.

But one day, while I was flipping through YouTube, something changed.

I had just finished watching a lifestyle vlog and let the autoplay play another video. The new video of a young woman talking directly to the camera, with saddened expression on her face.

She happened to be a sex worker who had just lost custody of her daughter who her grandparents now raised. She was also facing a myriad of other tough life circumstances.

I was instantly gripped by her story, if there were any more interviews, and wanted to know what the name of the show was called, and it happened to be Soft White Underbelly.

Boasting over 2.3 million subscribers at the time of writing, Soft White Underbelly is a docu-series on YouTube by photographer Mark Laita. He interviews individuals within our society that America has turned their backs on, ridiculed and seen as untouchable.

In an introductory video for the channel, Laita noted that the name came from former prime minister Winston Churchill. He was advising the US on the best way to attack Germany in WWII.

"He [Churchill] called Italy the soft underbelly of Europe, meaning that was the most vulnerable spot that Germany had to come in from Italy," Laita said in the video.

Soft White Underbelly Intro Videoyoutu.be

Many of the interviews are of sex workers, drug addicts, runaways, gang members, swingers, the homeless, and many more that the country sees as an entity on their own.

Soft White Underbelly is captivating because of the way it humanizes those who have society's stamp of condemnation on them. It demonstrates that no matter how far apart we are, we are really not that different. Laita's interviewees tell stories that "everyday people" would find difficult to understand,

The emotions elicited by these conversations alone make it a binge-worthy channel. On the other hand, the viewer has a limitless supply of content thanks to new uploads every day. Because there are so numerous episodes to choose from, you get to see many walks of life, their beginnings, and stories they want to share.

"These videos are meant to create awareness of things that are broken in our country. If we don't look at some of the things, they're just going to continue to grow and get worse and worse . And I believe listening, understanding, accepting and maybe deciding to do something differently might make a difference eventually," Laita said.

Hopefully, others can take the time to see the human in everyone around them.

Check out Soft White Underbelly on YouTube here.

Women founders continue to come up against common challenges and biases

Written by Kelly Devine, Division President UK & Ireland, Mastercard

Starting a business may have historically been perceived as a man’s game, but this couldn’t be further from reality. Research shows women are actually more likely than men to actively choose to start their own business – often motivated by the desire to be their own boss or to have a better work-life balance and spend more time with their family.

The recently published Mastercard Index of Women Entrepreneurship 2021 found that in the category of 'Aspiration Driven Entrepreneurship’ – capturing those who actively choose to start their own business – women in the UK surpass men: 60% vs 56%. And Mastercard research from February 2022 found 10% of female business owners started their business in the past two years compared to 6% of men – meaning women were 67% more likely to have started a business during the pandemic.

Yet, there are common challenges that women founders continue to come up against - not least the gender imbalance in the household and long-held biases which are still prevalent.

In the UK, women are almost three times more likely to be balancing care and home commitments than men, and this was exacerbated during the pandemic as the additional barriers of school closures and lockdowns meant that the care time of dependents rose significantly on a day-to-day level for women. In addition, women were less likely to have access to a home office, greatly impacting the work they were able to accomplish when working from home was the only option.

It's also widely known that female business owners are still more likely to struggle to access funding for their business ideas. According to Dealroom, all-women founding teams received just 1.4% of the €23.7bn invested into UK start-ups in 2021, while all-male leadership teams have taken almost 90% of the available capital.

Without financial support, and when juggling significant time pressures both at home and at work, how can women grow their companies and #BreaktheBias (as this year’s International Women’s Day termed it)? What tools or support can save them time and money, and give them the headspace they need to focus on building their business?

With female owned businesses collectively estimating revenue growth of £120 billion over the next five years, solving this problem is bigger than supporting women – it’s about supporting the national economy.

Using tech to level the playing field

There are clearly societal issues at play that need to be resolved. But when we look at the rise in technology businesses during the pandemic, we can plainly see an alternative source of support critical for business growth: digital tools.

A third of female business owners say new technologies will be crucial to the success of their business in the future and one in five say it is the most important thing for business growth.

With new technology comes new ways to pay, create, and work. And yet there are barriers that prevent business owners accessing this technology. Women are significantly more likely to say they want to use more digital tools but don’t know what is best for their business and also more concerned about the security of digital tools.

When technology is adopted by businesses – whether using online accounting solutions or messenger services for communicating with staff – it saves them time, allows them to maintain and grow their customer base, and ultimately increases cost savings and profit.

By drastically improving the training and support that is available to women-owned business to access and utilise technology we will allow these businesses to grow and succeed. And we know there is demand for it.

Research done by the IFC and Dalberg shows that female entrepreneurs are more likely to invest time and money in business development. This includes product development, customer base expansion, and digital tools and training and there are plenty of services available offering this type of support – many of them for free.

One such programme is Strive UK – an initiative of the Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth – which aims to reach 650,000 micro and small business owners across the UK and empower them with the tools they need to thrive in the digital economy through free guidance, helpful tools and one-to-one mentoring.

Working together with small business experts – Enterprise Nation, Be the Business and Digital Boost – we hope to ensure hundreds of thousands of UK female business owners have the tools they need to succeed and reach their ambitious goals. Because this ambition remains strong in the UK, with female business owners largely optimistic about the future despite the multitude of challenges they are facing. Four in ten say they will grow their business in the next five years – compared to only a third of male business owners – and they’re also 35% less likely than men to say they plan to downsize or close the business.

But if we do not empower female entrepreneurs to access the tools and technology they need to grow, there is a risk this optimism could be misplaced. Support programmes that provide business owners with guidance and mentorship can help ensure this isn’t the case, allowing female entrepreneurs to not only survive but thrive in the months and years ahead.