HBO, through their #BecauseOfHer initiative, has worked hard to support women in front of and behind the camera. For Women’s History Month this year, HBO wanted to make a meaningful contribution to the conversation and support women and their experiences in a way that felt honest and real. The objective was simple: create a campaign that would create conversation and genuine engagement with women from all walks of life.

HBO has always told authentic female narratives onscreen. But the complex, nuanced and imperfect women they create wouldn’t be possible without the real women who are brave enough to show their true selves offscreen. So for Women’s History Month we went searching for those stories in the one place where women have always felt safe writing them: their diaries.

While strides have been made in the representation of women of all kinds onscreen, there are still too few places for women to express themselves offscreen. HBO has spent years creating varied and compelling female characters in their programming, so our brief was to embrace this truth and do the same for all women during Women’s History Month. Our objective was to create a real connection with our female audience as measured by the depth of engagement and conversation surrounding the brand.

As part of a living library of women’s diaries called The Inspiration Room, we partnered with HBO talent to create six short films, each performing a real women’s diary entry.

We didn’t just highlight our talent––we used our talent to highlight the real women who were brave enough to share their stories with us. From the uplifting to the tragic, the funny to the bizarre, these women’s stories were brought to life by Susie Essman (Curb Your Enthusiasm), Angela Sarafyan (Westworld), Poorna Jagannathan (The Night Of), Natalie Gold (Succession), Dominique Fishback (The Deuce), and Margarita Levieva (The Deuce). We left the words of real women’s stories about miscarriage, cancer, dating and more unedited, and our films were all the more powerful for it.

Several of these actresses also contributed their own diary entries to The Inspiration Room, including other HBO talent like Issa Rae, Lena Dunham and director Michelle MacLaren.

The Inspiration Room became a place for women from all over to tell their stories and read the stories of other women, all in their own words. More than that, it was a safe space for women to feel heard and understood in a way that can seem rare in today’s world. Like the women it paid tribute to, the conversation and engagement that the weeklong exhibition generated were deep and genuine.

In total, 800+ women were inspired to submit their diaries, stories and personal expressions.

Over 1,700 people visited the room in NYC (including almost 500 who RSVP’d for the nightly events).

More than 30 HBO talent including actresses, directors, writers and producers submitted stories that were featured in the room.

One HBO actress was so moved by the campaign that she flew from LA to NYC to attend an event in the room and read her story.