Shifting the narrative in Hollywood
As CEO of Hello Sunshine, Sarah Harden (1990) is reshaping Hollywood by championing women’s stories and diverse voices – proving that inclusive storytelling isn’t just powerful culture-making, but smart business that changes how the world sees women.
Sunday 13 March 2022 • 5 minute read
Sarah Harden (1990) co-founded media company Hello Sunshine with Reese Witherspoon in 2016, which sold with a record-breaking valuation last year. The company tackles Hollywood bias, centering women’s stories that have been ‘structurally silenced’ in Hollywood for decades.As an arts student and Ormond College resident in the early 1990s, book-loving Sarah Harden had her sights set on a career in journalism.But when she landed a role with the Boston Consulting Group after uni as a “bit of an experiment” in hiring non-business graduates, she found herself on a very different path. It would ultimately lead to Hollywood, and her current role as CEO of Reese Witherspoon’s media company, Hello Sunshine.
Along the way, Graduated from Harvard Business School, co-founded a start-up at the height of the dotcom boom, managed business development in Asia for Newscorp, and led video streaming company Otter Media.Her current role as CEO at Hello Sunshine draws on those years leading media businesses at the highest levels, while providing the opportunity to deliver on a strong mission: to tell female-led stories. While that may seem a deceptively simple goal, when Harden and Witherspoon launched Hello Sunshine just five years ago, no other major production companies were doing it.As it turns out, putting female stories at the centre of content creation is not just the right thing to do - it is also good business. Hello Sunshine sold last year for a reported $1.2 billion (USD $900 million) to Candle Media, backed by private equity firm Blackstone Group Inc.The cultural power that comes from receiving such a high valuation is not lost on Sarah. “Power follows money,” she says. “I am excited to think about how our success to-date helps unlock opportunities for other female and diverse led media companies to get their stories made and their companies funded, too.”The sale vindicates Sarah and Reese’s bold vision to elevate voices that have been structurally silenced by Hollywood; not only women, but also people of colour and members of the LBGTQIA+ community.It also brings them several steps closer to achieving lasting change. Their place among Hollywood’s most powerful has been cemented, with both women retaining equity shares, as well as board seats. They also continue to manage day-to-day operations.
Exciting StorytellingSome of Hello Sunshine’s biggest successes to date have been TV series with strong female leads or ensemble casts, including Big Little Lies, Morning Wars and Little Fires Everywhere. If you haven’t heard of the series, you have almost certainly heard of their starring actors; among them Nicole Kidman, Jennifer Aniston and Kerry Washington.Most recently Hello Sunshine released their first feature film, Where the Crawdads Sing, based on the best-selling book by Delia Owens (it was a Reese’s Book Club selection in 2017). It garnered $60 million at the box office in the first few weeks of its release.Not only have these productions been critically successful (in 2020 alone, the company’s shows were nominated for 18 Emmys), but they have also been commercially valuable, driving hundreds of thousands of new users to their respective streaming platforms in the US.These huge audiences matter; over time, seeing women in leading roles can change how we see them in everyday life, too.“Storytelling can really move culture, and can shift the way women get to walk through the world,” says Sarah.“When we see women in roles with true agency and a wider range of identities and narratives than being the ‘love interest’ or ‘side character’ - the CEO instead of the assistant - it absolutely changes the way we see women in real life.”To affect that kind of change, you need to be on the very top of your game, with everyone pulling in the same direction. Sarah says she still draws on the team spirit she encountered at Ormond when working with her colleagues at Hello Sunshine.“One of the things I loved most about my time at Ormond was what a wonderful collaborative
community it was. And I played hockey and softball too – I have always loved being on teams.“One of the things I am proudest about at Hello Sunshine is that the same spirit carries through our company and is integral to our excellence – the power and joy of collaboration and that winning is most fun when you do it as a team.”Hello Sunshine was launched just before the Me Too and Times Up movements, tapping into the zeitgeist at just the right time. For Sarah, this is the moment to address historical inequities and tell stories that would have remained untold, even ten years ago.“We’ve had decades of lost stories of women and you’ve had women, people of colour, and filmmakers, directors and creators just marginalised from traditional storytelling,” she says. “It’s not only wrong but it’s bad business. Audiences are so hungry to see the fullest range of their lived experience reflected in the stories they consume.”The good news? Thanks to Sarah, Reese and their team, there is going to plenty more for them to see.
community it was. And I played hockey and softball too – I have always loved being on teams.“One of the things I am proudest about at Hello Sunshine is that the same spirit carries through our company and is integral to our excellence – the power and joy of collaboration and that winning is most fun when you do it as a team.”Hello Sunshine was launched just before the Me Too and Times Up movements, tapping into the zeitgeist at just the right time. For Sarah, this is the moment to address historical inequities and tell stories that would have remained untold, even ten years ago.“We’ve had decades of lost stories of women and you’ve had women, people of colour, and filmmakers, directors and creators just marginalised from traditional storytelling,” she says. “It’s not only wrong but it’s bad business. Audiences are so hungry to see the fullest range of their lived experience reflected in the stories they consume.”The good news? Thanks to Sarah, Reese and their team, there is going to plenty more for them to see.
Sarah’s advice to her Ormond selfTrust your instincts about what’s worth your time and energy – whether that’s in what to study, or what friendships to foster, or what jobs to pursue – and do what feels worthy, soul-affirming, joyful, generous and kind, and aligned to the best version of yourself you are trying to be.The rewards for trusting your instincts won’t always be obvious in the short term - but the magical things that unfold later in your life from seeds that you sowed early on will be meaningful.
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