Smile Train India Builds the First Cleft-Inclusive Image Repository on Shutterstock

During National Lipstick Day in July, which falls in the National Cleft Awareness Month; Smile Train – the world’s largest cleft focused charity, saw an opportunity to spark meaningful conversations around the inhibition that women with a cleft feel while wearing a bright shade of lipstick.

Shutterstock collection features stock images of cleft-affected women, ready to be used by diverse brands in their mainstream communications materials

While executing the Lipstick Day campaign, the organization realized that representation of individuals with clefts was almost non-existent as there were no images of cleft-affected models available on AI platforms, leave alone the image banks.

In a country where more than 35,000 children are born with a cleft every year, there is not one image of a cleft-affected model. It was no longer about the lack of awareness around individuals with a cleft, but lack of representation. So, what began as a Lipstick Day campaign for cleft inclusivity evolved into a movement to address the underrepresentation of individuals with a cleft.

For this, Smile Train India, in collaboration with Tonic Worldwide, built the first cleft-inclusive image repository on Shutterstock. This repository is a ready source for brands and organizations to use for their day-to-day communication and take a small step towards a big change.

Mamta Carroll, Smile Train’s Senior Vice President and Regional Director for Asia, said, “While there are discussions about body positivity and representation of various skin tones, there is hardly any conversation around representation of individuals with clefts in the modeling and film industry. As the world’s largest cleft focused organization, one of our objectives is to create an enabling environment for people with clefts to thrive in life. Our Shutterstock project is a pioneering step to build a repository of stock images of cleft affected individuals that brands, corporations, and casting agencies may use for their communications materials and enable representation for individuals with a facial birth difference. I am extremely grateful to actor Sarika Singh and Sonaali Malhotra for their courage in being a part of this project.“

Josna Joseph, Senior Creative Director at Tonic Worldwide, said, “The Lipstick Day campaign, for me as a woman and a marketer, was an opportunity to challenge the toxic beauty standards that have led to such intense biases and pathetic displays of discrimination against anything that looks or feels unfamiliar. Yes, we’ve had conversations around this, but not nearly enough. It’s why representation is so crucial. Though I yearn for the day when no representation, for any version of beauty, is required at all. As a first step, we have built a repository of images on Shutterstock. Several brands, who share our vision, are using these images in their communication. As an agency, we will be focusing more on inclusive scripts, cast, and campaigns.”

Video link: www.instagram.com/p/C2raevwR2Ua

Shutterstock link: shutr.bz/3vMvodS

About Smile Train India

Smile Train empowers local medical professionals with training, funding, and resources to provide free cleft surgery and comprehensive cleft care to children globally. We advance a sustainable solution and scalable global health model for cleft treatment, drastically improving children’s lives, including their ability to eat, breathe, speak, and ultimately thrive. Since 2000, Smile Train India has supported more than 700,000 free cleft surgeries across India, through a network of 150+ partner hospitals.

To learn more about how Smile Train India’s sustainable approach, please visit smiletrainindia.org. For cleft treatment related query or support, please call our toll-free helpline number: 1800 103 8301.