Young stories, influencers between activism and pandemic

Ludovica Gargari, actress who brought her passion for cooking online and won her battle against anorexia; 18-year-old Aya Mohamed, an activist who gives voice to the reality of veiled girls in Italy; the self-taught DJ Federico Gardenghi; Victoria Oluboyo, student and activist who fights discrimination and stereotypes through her blog; Luca Petrogalli, who was stuck in the University of Winsconsin alone during the 2020 lockdown; the twins Fabrizio and Valerio Salvatori (Two Twins) who, through social media, also give lessons to the elderly to overcome the 'digital divide'. They are among the 13 influencers protagonists of the self-portraits in times of pandemic that make up Young stories, a new Rai social series dedicated to the under 25s, which has just arrived on RaiPlay. An immersive story about the typical days of kids who have overcome fears, cultivated passions and undertaken professions on the web. "Young Stories reflects our public service mission and is part of our Maestro Manzi 4.0 project, with which Rai is committed to helping the country overcome the digital divide - explains Giovanni Parapini, Rai Director for Social Affairs -. This is a courageous program, dedicated to an age group that has suffered greatly from the limitations of the pandemic ". Among the 13 influencers there is a majority presence of women (eight to five), "another aspect that recalls our founding values, among which we highlight vision, inclusion, gender equality, diversity and disability", adds Parapini. In the group of "13 boys of our round table" as defined by Simona Ercolani, CEO and creative guide of Stand by me who produces the program, there are also Virginia Montemaggi, who talks about school and invites followers to enhance their individuality; Elisa Muriel De Gennaro, youtuber proud of her being curvy, pro-freedom of choice and against anti-obesity discrimination; Chiara Bordi, model, who came third at Miss Italia 2018 who fully lives her passions even as a disabled person; Marcello Ascani, a 'nomadic' youtuber who talks about his travels; the green activist Federica Gasbarro; Cristina Chiperi, writer who constantly confronts readers on the Wattpad platform; the singer and multi-instrumentalist Matteo Markus Bok. Protagonists chosen through "a call to action and our scouting on the web - explains Simona Ercolani - for us the message that each of these guys conveys was very important". The docuseries comes at a time when we find dramatic episodes related to certain excesses of the web, such as the challenges on Tiktok: "Some of the self-portraits also deal with the negative aspects of social media, the reflection at times of a cruelty that aims to destroy . For example, Elisa Muriel De Gennaro talks about it as she fights body shaming on the net. In telling about each other, boys also make issues explode ". Rai is "committed to representing complexity - explains Elena Capparelli, director of RaiPlay and Digital - and in particular, RaiPlay pays great attention to the world of generation zero and millennials that needs to be listened to, even in a different way, without looking at it. from above and in any case never simplifying, addressing even the most complex issues. In Young Stories we enter a new language, a very precious gateway also for the adult world ". A road that also pays off on RaiPlay in terms of audience (50% of the platform users are under 44 years old): "According to the latest data, in January 2021 compared to January 2020 the time spent by users doubled, equal to + 91%; 27 million users have downloaded the app and 17 million have registered ". We are also working to increase the circularity of the contents with the arrival of RaiPlay programs also in the general program, "always taking into account the audience profiles and formats. We have already done this for example with Edoardo Ferrario, and we will do it with a our docuseries that has yet to start, on the La Scala dance corps, which will also be broadcast on Rai5 ".