Maleesha Kharwa, a 14-year-old girl who hails from Mumbai’s Dharavi Slum, has become the face of luxury beauty brand Forest Essentials’ new campaign ‘The Yuvati Collection’.
Maleesha was discovered in Mumbai in 2020 by Hollywood actor Robert Hoffman, who later set up a Go Fund Me page for the girl. Today, the 14-year-old enjoys over 225,000 followers on Instagram and often adds the hashtag #princessfromtheslum to her posts. In recent years, she has done multiple modelling gigs and she even featured in a short film titled “Live Your Fairytale”.
Now, she has been tapped as the face of Forest Essentials’ new campaign ‘Yuvati Selection’, which is a social initiative that aims to “empower young minds”.
In April, the brand shared a wholesome video on Instagram that showed Maleesha entering their store which had her campaign photos. “Her face lit up with pure delight, To see her dreams in front of her in sight. Maleesha’s story is a beautiful reminder that dreams really do come true. #BecauseYourDreamsMatter,” Forest Essentials wrote in the caption.
The video soon took the internet by storm and accumulated more than 5 million views and over 406,000 likes. Internet users praised Maleesha and congratulated her for the amazing feat.