Reese Witherspoon’s Hello Sunshine establishes “Collective” to mentor top female creators

Hello Sunshine is saying hi to a group of trailblazing women in the creator economy. The media company established by Reese Witherspoon has launched the Hello Sunshine Collective, a venture that will offer mentorship to a group of female influencers and entrepreneurs.

The first class of Collective mentees will include 15 women who have a combined social reach of more than 59 million followers. The chosen creators are active across all major platforms. The cohort includes YouTube standouts like Yolanda Gampp of How To Cake It and Joanne Molinaro of The Korean Vegan; streaming stars like Rachell ‘Valkyrae‘ Hofstetter (pictured above); lifestyle influencers like Rachel Martino; and a number of personalities who are most famous for their TikToks, such as Kat Stickler, Yasmine Sahid, and Unofficial Bridgerton Musical co-creator Emily Bear.

As part of their membership in the Hello Sunshine Collective, the 15 creators will receive support in areas like marketing, strategic partnerships, and direct-to-consumer retail. The year-long initiative will begin on October 20 with a launch party in downtown Los Angeles.

In a statement, Witherspoon said that the Collective will serve as “rocket fuel” for the female voices it seeks to amplify. “To truly change the story for women, you need to change the storytellers,” added Maureen Polo

, the Head of Direct-to-Consumer at Hello Sunshine. “As we grow our Direct-to-Consumer offerings at Hello Sunshine, building a hands-on, bespoke talent incubator was the perfect next evolution for how we empower women in this space.”

Hello Sunshine’s Collective is the latest venture for a company that was acquired by Candle Media in 2021 in a $900 million deal. Post-acquisition, Hello Sunshine has applied its feminist lens to trending internet topics. It recently announced a production deal with TikTok that will result in multimedia adaptations of titles beloved by the literary community known as #BookTok.

With its wide range of ventures, Hello Sunshine is aiming to reverse revenue trends from the previous year. Due to Hollywood strikes and other issues, the company reportedly delivered just 10% of its projected 2023 earnings.