A 14-year-old girl from the Dharavi Slum in Mumbai has made the country proud by becoming the face of luxury beauty brand ‘Forest Essentials’ new campaign ‘The Yuvati Collection’.
The girl, identified as Maleesha Kharwa, was first discovered by Hollywood actor Robert Hoffman. The Hollywood star had even set up a Go Fund Me page to help her financially. Now, she is lovingly called as the ‘Princess of the slum’. She also has an Instagram page with over 225K followers on the photo-sharing app.
After being discovered by Robert Hoffman, Maleesha has done several modeling assignments and has appeared in a short film titled ‘Live Your Fairytale’.
The luxury beauty brand picking her up is an absolute joy for both Maleesha and her slum-dwelling friends and family. Forest Essentials’ reportedly picked Maleesha as their face as part of a social initiative that aims to empower young minds.
Sharing a video of Maleesha’s tour to one of their store, the brand shared a video and wrote, “Maleesha’s story is a beautiful reminder that dreams really do come true. #BecauseYourDreamsMatter.”
Since being shared online, the video has garnered over 410K likes with several comments praising the young girl.
“Very happy to know she goes to school & here's hoping she will continue that... yess education is indeed mandatory,” commented a user.
Another user wrote, “Instead of taking Bollywood actresses for beauty advertisements companies should take poor and deprived kids and prove they can look beautiful by using their products. Then it will be Win Win situation. This way they can help poor kids and rich does not become richer.”
“To see Bollywood celebs in every cover we r fed up and to see something new like this it delights us and attracts customers,” wrote another user.