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kstew_1

@kstew_1

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Tech & Media Exec, Board Director, ✍️ "Our Turn" OG Twitter, CBC, Hallmark Channel, YGL. Chair Blink49Studios.

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Women have already proven they can reach the top of tech, and a lot of them are leaving anyway.

@kstew_1 Stewart traces the pattern, from the senior women OpenAI hired who are now almost all gone to the Twitter engineering SVP who answered a question about diversity with “we can’t lower the bar.”

Her answer is to stop proving your worth to rooms that won’t recognize it and start choosing where your experience goes next.

If you’ve spent years earning your seat, this changes the question you ask about keeping it.

https://codelikeagirl.substack.com/p/women-leaving-tech-leadership by @kstew_1

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There’s something you have to realize about this video. The women in my life who are behind it.

From my 84 yrold mum who’s quadriplegic and uses computer chip aided glasses to find this relic on the web, download it and send to me today. To a best friend @arlenedickinson who landed in Ottawa from visiting 🇨🇦 troops on the front lines of Afghanistan (yes we were there 🇺🇸) to give me this award. Isme Bennie who gave me my first job in the biz and forever my mentor. @debbie_travis my earliest collaborator and lifelong friend today. @ciarahunt @sallycattocbc @marydarling9 The incredibly brilliant and brave women of the CBC, the producers we worked with, the talent who created the best in Canadian television it’s all an emotional ride through an amazing time.
@thepetermansbridge @itsrickmercer and @strombo
The friends in the video no longer with us - the great Jay Switzer and lovely Chris Hyndman.

And the parts of the video I’m most proud of. Building an all Canadian prime time schedule that for the first time in broadcast history best an All 🇺🇸 schedule proving IT CAN BE DONE and will be done again.

And that rockin promo at the end is 💕. That’s what we’re capable of 15 years ago. We have so much more we can do.
Let THIS be the reminder. We didn’t have the $ we were working under a Harper gov and we were cut year after year. But no matter what - with the right attention and focus we can prove Canadian content matters to Canadians. We just need room to breathe to make it happen.

Thanks mum for sending 💕 taken in Los Angeles, California by @kstew_1

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2 months ago

Critics are everywhere.

I was once ranked #13 to Carney’s #1 spot in a national mag power list.

My kid said “oh, so not top 10?”

Take your wins where you can, darling.
They won’t be handed to you. 🤣

Full story at link #substack taken in Los Angeles, California by @kstew_1

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2 months ago

When the Mr. accepted his diplomatic post as Consul General in LA, we thought we’d just keep on doing what we always did: taking on two demanding careers, occasionally from different continents, making it work.

(Dear Reader; It’s been working for 15 years. Today is our anniversary💕.)

I had just joined the World Economic Forum to lead the Future of Media when Zaib got the CG call. Suddenly we were both stepping into new fast lanes.

Then Covid hit.

Borders closed, the world shut down, and I found myself grounded in California. His new job in diplomacy became a crash course in crisis management. I still see it as a blessing I was there rather than stuck a continent away.

When the world reopened, the CG pace didn’t slow: Governors, Senators, Admirals, Generals, complicated trade issues, border security, devastating wildfires and ofc - the business of Hollywood. It was an extraordinary time, sometimes surreal, and I know how lucky I was to bear witness to it up close.

What I didn’t anticipate was how completely this life would overwhelm mine too.

I’m not the diplomat, but diplomacy isn’t 9 to 5. It happens over dinners, events, hosting and constant relationship-building. And it meant holding the fort at home when Zaib was away, which was often since his remit covered Arizona and Nevada too.

My calendar was full, but my work focus shifted. I can admit I missed leading teams, making the tough decisions - and I missed the momentum of work that was unmistakably mine.

But here’s what I understand now.

Life hadn’t stopped. It rerouted.

Maybe you’re reading this after life changed lanes on you. Work shifted without your permission, family needed you, you burned out, or couldn’t (or decided not to) keep up the insane speed. When the noise quieted down, you may be suprised to feel strangely out of view.

But you haven’t been standing still. You’re mastering a new lane.

And now I get to answer the question I’ve been too busy to even consider these past years.

What’s next?? taken in Los Angeles, California by @kstew_1

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2 months ago

What is this grainy pic? It’s a raucous conga line through our wedding celebration 15 years ago today.

We invited friends and family to a party Aug 21. 2011 at the Rosewater Supper Club. Some guessed they were coming to a surprise wedding - but the real surprise was we held our service privately back in May.

This was our night to celebrate, our girls handed out cupcakes, I rewore my wedding dress by @gretaconstantine (without dupatta) and our suprised guests danced into the night.

In a pre social media world where Hello Magazine was the only way anyone who wasn’t there saw the inside of that night, it feels now extra sweetly special. Just like that grainy pic and all our memories.

Love to the Mr and all our adventures since. 15 years and many more to come, inshallah (as Anne Hathaway would say) 💕 @zaib_shaikh by @kstew_1

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I was lucky to be a guest on The Social more than once. I mean, where else would this old OG of social go but The Social to talk all thing Twitter, and my book Our Turn.

This creaky old pic is a screenshot taken by darling husband - coz it was 2015 and there weren’t a lot of options. And there weren’t a lot of options, still aren’t, for meaningful conversations on a public couch.

We were all so lucky to be informed and entertained, educated and captivated - and best of all HEARD.

Thanks for all you do as you move into new realms and special kudos to Melissa who I’ve worked with on and off this couch - and whose new ventures are keeping us women aware and excited about the years of healthy living to come. @thesocialctv @melissagrelo taken in Los Angeles, California by @kstew_1

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2 months ago

Are you being humble? Or are you erasing yourself?? taken in Los Angeles, California by @kstew_1

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2 months ago

Apparently this is what winning at 59 looks like.
People don’t seem to be too happy about this.

Nicole Kidman is 59 and on the September cover of British Vogue. I saw it and thought: wow. Good for her. Good for all us “over 50s”.

It’s a significant moment.

Yet I didn’t entirely feel like celebrating. Which surprised me, because watching someone break barriers is normally something I cheer on. Especially when the barrier breaker is a woman my own age.
What interested me wasn’t Nicole’s choice.

It was ours.

Because invariably, one woman becomes evidence of something larger. Look, we say. This is what 59 looks like now.

And that’s where I get uneasy.

Progress breaks when we turn one woman’s freedom into another woman’s assignment. If a life lived at the 1% becomes the new scorecard for the rest of us, I’m not sure we escaped the old one. We just made it much more demanding.

You can age, but stay thin, desirable, successful, interesting and professionally ascendant. You can reinvent yourself, but the reinvention better photograph beautifully.

The funny thing is that when we get to a certain stage, the whole idea of winning changes anyway.

For a while the score is easy to tally. You get the job, then the promotion, along with the money and recognition. But eventually some things that once looked like a big deal turn out to be rather small once you’re standing beside them. And some things you once dismissed as small become very important. Like your time and your freedom.

We don’t want less. We want more precisely.

And perhaps that’s a much more interesting way to think about ageing than simply proving we can still win at the old games.

I wrote the rest of this argument, including what I have experienced as the real privilege of getting older, over at I Hate to Tell You, Darling.
Read the full piece on Substack → taken in Los Angeles, California by @kstew_1

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What is even winning anymore?

Done right, you’ve earned the prerogative to decide for yourself.

When you’re young and starting out, the world keeps score. It tells you if you’re winning - by throwing at you promotions, awards, even applause. But there comes a point when, invariably, there are only so many firsts left to rack up.

How you deal with that change of pace, and how you keep on winning - is up to you, my dear.

In this world, be a Monfils. Read my latest ➡️ taken in Los Angeles, California by @kstew_1

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2 months ago

“Creation is the lowest bar to cross. What we have a problem with is discovery.” 📱✨

Global Media & Tech Executive Kirstine Stewart shares a game-changing perspective on the creator economy, live at The Muslim House® during SXSW.

Putting high-powered cameras in everyone’s hands turned the world into creators overnight, but it also flooded the space. Today, the true barrier isn’t making content—it’s getting found.

Smart creators are using AI as an engine for audience discovery, bypassing traditional media middlemen to build direct, lasting relationships with their community.

Produced by the @MPAChollywoodBureau with the support of @Dorisdukefdn

#KirstineStewart #SXSW #TheMuslimHouse #MPAC #CreatorEconomy AIDiscovery DigitalStrategy MediaTech ContentCreators DirectToAudience FutureOfMedia by @kstew_1

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Everyone hates a micromanager.

But here we are, micromanaging ourselves.

We measure our sleep. Optimize our mornings. Turned family time into “quality time,” holidays into content and rest into something with performance metrics.

The promise was we’d end up hotter, younger and richer.

Instead, we are feelingtired, poor and slightly fed up.

I wonder if we made one simple mistake.

We spent so much time preparing for an optimized life, we forgot to enjoy the one we already have.

Maybe the new luxury isn’t looking younger, richer or more impressive.

Maybe richness is measured in a life that is unmistakably yours.

And enjoying it while you’re living it 💕💪🏼

Here’s a short read on your long weekend ➡️ see link attached taken in West Hollywood, California by @kstew_1

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