Will Oppenheimer snatch up all the prizes? Will Barbie make a comeback? It's Oscars time this Sunday!

Female-fronted movies are proving most popular with audiences this year, but it seems the critics don't necessarily agree. Advertising tech firm Quantcast proved that if the awards were based on most engagement, films with a female lead would dominate the ‘Best Picture’ category. Not just Barbie, but Poor Things too, led by Emma Stone. But despite this demand, films with female protagonists were at their lowest in a decade last year at 30%.

Oppenheimer is suspected to dominate the awards once again, but I have hope that Lily Gladstone picks up the prize for Best Actress - the first Native American woman to feature in this category - for her outstanding performance in Killers of a Flower Moon.

- Cressida, Head of Content

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LET'S GET INTO IT 🤓

HALF of Brits think women's equality has gone too far 🤦♀️

Huh?! This is a global study from Kings College London for International Women's Day. The data showed that:

🙅♂️ Nearly one in two Britons (47%) say that equal rights for women have gone too far

📈 This is a notable increase from last year

😖 Britons are now more likely than Americans to agree women’s equality has gone far enough

What do we take from this? These results are a worrying signal of the rising pushback against gender equality. It is particularly concerning that the trend is going in the wrong direction with the public becoming MORE skeptical of women's equality. There is an illusion that we've spoken about gender equality enough now, that the work is done and now we should all be quiet. But this is far from the case. We've got a long way to go which these findings really drive home.

AI images spread of Trump with Black voters

Did you spot it? In this new era of AI, media literacy is more important than ever. Could you tell if an image was fake without the warning? What about if you were casually scrolling social media without thinking too hard?

So what's the issue? When shared on social media, captions falsely claimed that Trump was in fact interacting with Black voters, and the majority of viewers appeared to believe the images to be real. This forms part of a wider trend of disinformation amid the US presidential campaign. This specific image was created on AI tool Midjourney and reportedly took 30 seconds to create. The potential impact, however, of these tactics can be long-lasting and could fuel more dangerous propaganda.

The co-founder of Black Voters Matter, Cliff Albright, said: "There have been documented attempts to target disinformation to black communities."

What's going on with young people's mental health?

18-24-year-olds have the highest rate of mental illness in any age group. And it's on the rise. What's most shocking is that 20 years ago, this age bracket were the least likely to have a mental disorder.

What's changed? There is reason to believe that young people today are under particular pressure on a number of different fronts: academically, professionally, and socially. The cost of living crisis has, of course, exacerbated these factors. As has the impact of the pandemic which caused feelings of isolation and prohibited key life experiences.

So where does this leave us? People in their 20s are more likely to be off work with ill health than employees twice their age. Young people are struggling and withdrawing from society, dubbed a "lost generation" of young employees. The majority of those that fall into this category suffered from poor mental health during schooling meaning 79% are only qualified to GCSE level.

The study calls for more support for sixth forms and colleges so that young people stay in education and improve their economic outcomes. Though we are more empowered to openly discuss mental health these days, there is pressure to become more resilient and practice self-care, rather than access external help.

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