The Duchess of Sussex kicked off the 2024 South by Southwest Conference & Festivals with a timely conversation about women’s representation in media and the perils social media presents to young girls.
As part of the keynote panel “Breaking Barriers, Shaping Narratives: How Women Lead On and Off the Screen,” Duchess Meghan shared the stage with journalist Katie Couric, actor Brooke Shields, author Nancy Wang Yuen, and editor Errin Haines (a fitting choice of them, given that the opening day of SXSW coincided with International Women’s Day.)
For the event, Meghan wore a sea-salt silk set from Giuliva Heritage with a subtle pinstripe pattern. She tucked her button-up into a matching maxi skirt, and accessorized with a pair of decorative golden hoop earrings. Beauty-wise, the royal wore her hair parted down the middle and left it down. She kept her makeup natural, with rosy blush and a nude-colored lip.
In her speech, the duchess said, “Your voice is not small—it just needs to be heard.” She also talked about making social media safer for kids, a key issue for her, and one she has championed in the past.
At the first-ever Archewell Foundation Summit last October, Meghan and husband Prince Harry marked World Mental Health Day by offering a platform to parents who have lost a child due to mental health issues rooted in overexposure to social media. The royals partnered with Project Healthy Minds for the event.
“The burden of this can’t solely be on the parents,” Meghan said at the time. “A lot of the conversations we’ve had quietly behind the scenes with tech executives, they do feel that they’ve created parental controls and certain guardrails to curb this, but not all parents are tech-savvy and can navigate that, and there needs to be a better solution than that. You put in safeguards so when situations like this keep happening, you’re still working to keep people safe.”
Joel is the editorial and social media assistant for HarpersBAZAAR.com, where he covers all things celebrity news. When he steps away from the keyboard, you can likely find him singing off-key at concerts, scavenging thrift stores for loud wardrobe staples, or perusing bookstores for the next great gay romance novel.
