Valeisha Butterfield Talks WEEN Academy: “Young women aren’t looking for a hand-out, they’re looking for a hand-up.”

There are very few national organizations, or none that I’ve come across, that provide a tailored training for the next generation of women in the entertainment industry. So, when I heard of the WEEN Academy, I was instantly intrigued by the creative thinking and mind behind it. The Women in Entertainment Empowerment Network (WEEN), is a coalition of women and men of all ages and races committed to supporting, promoting and defending the balanced, positive portrayal of women in entertainment and society. The WEEN Academy is a 6-week crash course in the entertainment business with A-list celebrities and industry executives. Developed by WEEN, the academy is the first of its kind. In March, the WEEN Academy held auditions in New York City. Thousands of young women, from ages 18 – 22, showed up to compete for acceptance into this exclusive academy. Judges included Angie Martinez, Rocsi Diaz, Mona Scott-Young, Q-Tip and Stephen Hill. 35 young women were selected. I had the opportunity to speak with Valeisha M. Butterfield, Chair, National Board of Directors, of the organization.

1.  Initially, what made you want to do the WEEN Academy? Was there something that triggered this idea/concept? Yes.  Three years ago when we founded WEEN we were brainstorming on our strategic plan and what we wanted to accomplish in the first five years.  We knew in the first three years that we wanted to have programming that was very specific targeting young women interested in diverse career opportunities.  So the range was everything from the entertainment business to the private sector and corporate careers to different areas of the media – I mean it really varied.  We also knew that once we started forming our membership base we would eventually want to start streamlining our programming to focus in on one phase with the entertainment business.  We did a couple of focus groups and discovered that so many of our young women really wanted to enter the entertainment business but just didn’t know how.  I know when I first started out fourteen years ago there were no blue prints or college majors being offered on how to break through into entertainment.  We had to figure it out on our own!   The WEEN academy thus became a great opportunity for young women who wanted to breakthrough to do it the right way  by building up their skill sets, working on basic etiquette and interviewing skills, all while learning from their mentors and other women in the business.  We just wanted to give them the tools they needed to enter the business in the right way.

2. From the photos on the web site, it looks as if all of the students selected are of color. Was this done strategically? It just kind of happened that way.  We are open to all races and our membership base is absolutely multi-cultural but our primary demographic right now is African American and Latino.  When we opened up our auditions, those are the ones that came out.

3.  How did you select the judges? We had a pretty wide range of judges.  We invited different individuals from the entertainment business who work behind the scenes like Mona Scott -Young, Stephen Hill, President of music programming for BET, and quite a few other executives.  We also had representatives from the WEEN Board of Directors who have a strong legal and/or nonprofit background – Janaye Ingram and Midwin Charles are two examples of those.  We wanted to include celebrities as well and we knew that this would get the young women excited.  More importantly, we wanted to see how they responded being around celebrities – could they deliver or would they be star struck.  And they delivered.  So we really opened it up pretty wide for the judge selection and were really pleased with the outcome.  For the professors we wanted young women especially.  I mean not just limited to women but we wanted professors who really had established themselves in the entertainment industry and had a decent track record.  These individuals have done everything from PR and communications, to marketing and brand development, to artist management and business development.  We went after all of the executives in the business that had established themselves and were really capable of bringing their credibility in this field to the table.

4.  So the audition process–I saw the photos of the judging. How was that process? It was intense.  We had two rounds and the young ladies were interviewed in groups.  They were not provided with the questions ahead of time and had little time to prepare.  We wanted to test their knowledge and so the questions were ranging from everything on the entertainment business, to their industry role models and how they would react in certain scenarios.  It was really eye opening to see how prepared some of the young women were – completely on their A-game – while others fell terribly short.  At the end of the first round we had narrowed the groups down to approximately 120 young women.  This was no easy task because we had some ladies who had flown from great distances to be with us- Canada, California, and Texas to name a few. In round two, the girls were interviewed alone and the questions became more personal.  For this portion of the audition we really went deep and inquired on questions which would help reveal their true character.  We wanted to know who they were as a person, what they had been through, what obstacles they had conquered, and their overall integrity.  We needed to ensure they were mature and focused.  Some of their stories were heart breaking yet it was all in good balance – another sign of their drive to succeed.  In the end we were really pleased with the ladies we selected.

Photo: AllHipHop

5.  Was there anything surprising that you found with these young women? Yes.  I could not believe how much tragedy had affected so many of these beautiful young women standing in front of us on the panel.  Truly eye-opening – we’re talking 18 and 19 year olds who had been raped, molested, and some even single parents by the age of 13.  Seeing these girls was a clear reminder of how critical our work is to the community.  They aren’t looking for a hand out; they’re just looking for a “hand-up.” Hopefully that’s something we can provide.

6. Throughout this entire process, what have you found most challenging? Funding! You know, getting people and corporations to understand our needs can be difficult.  And this isn’t even anything I handle personally anymore but the stress can be overwhelming.   Our academy is very focused and has specific needs.  This time around we selected 35 girls to participate with a support system of nearly 43,000 members.   While accommodating all 43,000 of our members at once is not feasible, we are certainly taking strides in that direction…and hoping the funding will come.  Participation and facing fear are other great challenges we deal with on a daily basis.

7.  So the goal of the Academy is to identify and prepare the next entertainment industry mogul. What do you think one of the most important aspects/things that the next industry mogul needs to learn or master? The business model of the entertainment industry has changed drastically over the last five-to-ten years.  Not only would the next mogul need to be creative, they need to be able to spot talent and artistically push beyond barriers.   Most importantly, they must know the business side of it and really understand social media, growing trends in digital media, as well as be able to compete locally, nationally, and globally.  Interesting fact – over 95% of the world’s consumers live outside of the United States, yet we are trained to think domestically.  The next mogul that thinks of the world as an entire consumer base will really be able to breakthrough.

8.  Have you all decided what cities you are visiting next?  And what about next year? Not yet, but I will say we’ve done our job in going to major markets and now its time for us to think smaller.  We’re looking at cities like St. Louis, Boston, and other places which aren’t necessarily small markets just not as mainstream.  We want to go to different areas where we haven’t been before.  I’m from North Carolina, while we’ve had programming there, I’d like to bring it back.  And move out west more too.

9.  Thus far, what’s been the most rewarding? The most rewarding part for me personally was when I was in San Francisco the night before the second and final auditions.  I landed at the airport the morning of and I was so tired and exhausted – I didn’t know how I was going to get through the day.  When I pulled up to the venue there was a line wrapped around the building!  These women were camping out waiting for their opportunity.  We do matter.

10.  Is there anything else you’d like to share? A lot of people don’t realize that membership is free.   I guess we need to do a better job of making it known.  Membership is free to be a WEEN member.  In fact, all of our programs are free.  The young women are not charged one dime to o be apart of the academy – not one cent.

To learn more about the WEEN Academy, visit their web site .