Fuzia- empowering women through the fusion of cultures and ideas!

 It was about a pair of twins who solve a family mystery to help save their family. Later, reading her book, a 6-year-old girl came up to her with utmost exhilaration to tell Shraddha that she inspired her to write a book and made her realize her true calling. The incident seeded so deep in Shraddha and made her experience the potential of inspiration and after that she decided to influence all the girls and women around the world to get inspired by each other. Thus, in 2012 she started Fuzia as a Writing club, a platform meant for school girls to share their writings and essays. Riya and Shraddha are the founders of Fuzia.

It is now fuzia.com, a venture that grew from 2 to 50 team members under the leadership of co-founder Shraddha Varma (31), with the significant vision of influencing and empowering creative females globally through the power of their creative pursuits.

The idea

If women are to break away from the clutches of orthodox, patriarchal, pseudo/liberal patriarchal brackets, then economic independence becomes a prerequisite for them.

Sorority and opportunities for women to encash financial independence motivated the dynamic duo, Shraddha and Ria, to lay down the founding bricks of Fuzia.

At 11, when most of us were worrying about how our freshman year at high school would be, Shraddha had authored a book. Her short novel "Runaway Twins" at a local bookstore in Palo Alto destined a short fan moment when a kid came running to her and exclaimed that Shraddha's book had inspired her to write and create; that she wanted to become a writer as well. This incident gave birth to a novel concept in Shraddha's creative spirit. She thought of the idea for Fuzia initially as a writing club for young girls to post and gain feedback for their work, a global community for writing. It laid the founding bricks of what Fuzia is today. 

The Fuzia writing club was later joined by Shraddha in 2015, who facilitated the club's growth to a global community religiously devoted to empowering women worldwide. The small writing club, meant for young girls to be able to share their writings, is now a vast global online platform dedicated to Empowering women and nurturing future leaders, seamlessly managed by Shraddha Varma. Due to her leadership skills and dynamism, Fuzia has expanded across geographical boundaries and age groups to bring together creative talents under a common umbrella to connect, collaborate, inspire and grow. Today, they are a community of 50k + active contributors and a network of 5million + supporters across Social Media globally.

Fuzia took its little steps, clinging to hope and the vision of women empowerment. What made it go forward is the independent spirit of women who wanted to reach out to other women, help them evolve, empower their community, and stand out for equality and recognition issues. As they say, 'Hope is the garden where dreams grow like flowers.'

Like various startups that run across the globe with unparalleled dreams, theirs began with a vision of empowering women and valuing art that goes unvalued. Striving for a better world and hopes of empowering creativity since November 2015, Fuzia has now achieved heights of success and made its mark internationally.

Challenges

Being into a social media industry is an ocean of various challenges and increasing competitiveness. So, it has always been a challenge for them to sustain but they never gave up. They have improved continuously and improvised their efforts in terms of their product and activities. Also, member relations helped them garner the love and support of millions. Listening to their users helped them a lot. Be it positive feedback or criticism, they were all essential and heard them for future growth and improvement. Their journey saw its budding stage in August 2015 with the launch of their website. They're based in Mumbai.

Over the past eight years, they have achieved various milestones, which kept them going and helped them reach our target. They reached 1 million users in a span of a year. They expanded the Fuzia website to an app and launched Fuzia App for their users. They were even awarded by various prestige platforms such as "Iconic Teen Entrepreneur and Innovator" at the Women Economic Forum. Moreover, their most significant achievement has been that we were able to make our users showcase their talent and bring smiles on their faces, making them financially independent. They have helped many girls become financially independent and serve clients, such as Humaira Ferdous, Fuzia (Bangladesh).

"I believe that the more you praise and celebrate life, the more there is in life to celebrate. Fuzia helped me celebrate life to the fullest. I work here as a Graphic Designer now, but it feels like only yesterday when I couldn't even think of being at this pedestal."

They are step by step reaching a global audience and they look forward to continuing their efforts till the time they touch every woman whose talent has gone unnoticed. They have recently emerged to become an online networking community with 50,000+ members and four million+ followers on social media. An exciting initiative by Fuzia is Fuzia.org, which is a Social Activism platform to enhance Fuzia's vision to empower, educate and uplift women globally. It is a platform for local organizations and NGOs working towards causes related to education, women empowerment, upliftment of the unprivileged, acid attack victims, rape victims, betterment of the transgender community and a lot more. Their objective is to focus on these issues in-order to unite the community and empower every woman faced with such hurdles through our social activism platform.

Moreover, a recently launched initiative, "Humans of Fuzia," through which they share inspiring stories of women globally with their members, are some of their initiatives that are helping people and our brands grow. They empower women, help the underprivileged, boost the entrepreneurs, spread love, impart knowledge, grooming budding talents, and provide people with a safe place to network globally.

Another section of Fuzia is the Learning and Education segment, an inclusive global learning community to encourage and nurture women to become future leaders by providing opportunities to learn, grow, and get mentored by experts worldwide. They aim to drive empowerment and happiness by making Learning and Education accessible and affordable to every individual. Thus, building confidence and being empowered tomorrow! They are giving back to society by all the means they can which is the best part of Fuzia. They are optimistic that the chain of empowering women has taken a pace that will not satiate until each of us can live on our own and make our mark in the world. We all deserve to shine.

The future

Fuzia is a venture of Open Growth Media, which focuses on building various theme-based media properties that help attract and build diverse and inclusive global talent networks. They seek to uplift communities through the power of the media. In order to create a social impact on a worldwide level, Open Growth Media ventured into a flagship media property called Fuzia, which is an online networking community and a global platform to showcase your talent and skills - be it stories, blogs, poetry, photographs, articles, fashion, art, craft, videos or designs! This is done along with building one another through creative expression, experiential learning, and mutual support.

The platform is open to every individual, both men and women who support the cause of women empowerment, feminism, equality and mutual support/upliftment. Fuzia believes in "she for she" and "he for she" and considers that true 'Empowerment' is incomplete without men supporting it. All in all, Fuzia believes that an empowered woman is a happy woman and we drive 'Happiness' through the power of 6 key elements:

• Relationships and friendships
• Learning and education
• Engagement and activities
• Wellness
• Charity and kindness
• Financial independence

Fuzia's mission is to empower women by providing a platform that lets them present their ideas and talent to the world. Skills and expressions should not remain suppressed and undermined, and we abide by giving them due to visibility, support, and appreciation.

Recently, Fuzia has been featured by various prestigious platforms such as Inter Press Service, United Nations Bureau, Forbes India, The Hindustan Times and many more. Moreover, Shraddha (Founder) has been awarded "Iconic Teen Entrepreneur and Innovator" at Women Economic Forum and has also been invited to TEDx Sonoma County, where she shared her story called out for women to believe in themselves and achieve their dreams.

Here is a small tour for you if you want to engage yourself in learning with Fuzia!

Fuzia (www.fuzia.com)/ Fuzia App is like a talent hub that is home to millions of creative minds, where you can experience the ultimate amalgamation of creativity, learning, networking and inspiration, driven by mutual support and appreciation. It is an exclusive Talent Showcase & Skill Development platform for individuals globally. Fuzia offers a lot of Skill Development opportunities to let you hone your talents and become a better version of yourself each day.

      a) Live Sessions: They bring you experts and famous industry figures through their regular live sessions wherein they share their knowledge,  tips, and thought leadership.

       b) Campaigns/Contests: They engage their members by hosting a diverse range of campaigns and content to uplift their confidence and help them perform better during tasks. It is a way to let them explore their creative niche.

      c) Fuzia Talent: It is their initiative to allow their talented members to get opportunities to earn through suitable work assignments,   internships and projects, thereby making them economically empowered too.

      d) Fuzia Wellness: It is their unique initiative to democratize global health and wellness and make it accessible to every woman. While they continue doing our bit to empower Future Women Leaders, we also intend to do well for society by donating 5% of our revenue from projects towards the cause of upliftment and empowerment of women.

Fuzia doesn't end here! It is an ever-growing platform with millions of dreams, all uniting to one sole goal, women empowerment. Happy be she, who wants to be!

Future Plans

Fuzia's future growth plan remains to be a group of individuals who, step by step, look ahead towards attaining pillars of creative empowerment, community growth, individual strength and artistic magnification. They aspire to establish a space for women where they can be free from their own little cages and express themselves with true liberty. This space extends its hands through its worldwide belief in the strength of young minds! They believe that a society where women are strengthened is an empowered society in reality.

When they talk of our long-term plan in terms of empowering women, they see themselves delved in the ocean of not only finding out talent but also nurturing it through live sessions, campaigns, online learning, webinars, workshops, experiential learning, contests and so on. These initiatives help women develop their skills and grow enormously.

“For all the readers looking to be a part of Fuzia: I know how the world operates against you and the difficulties you have to go through, but do not stop believing in your individuality and the strength that comes along with it. Look forward, step by step and attain your goals through the pillars of true liberty. Be empowered and empower others through your skills.” said Shraddha to Startup Times.

 Do not forget to put your passion on your shoulders and be translucent about your goals and implementation. While selecting a business, keep in mind to take up one that you not only love but have a fair idea about. Research about it well, assess your finances, write your business plan, assess the market and consult with professionals before you embark on your journey.