Cosmetics brand MECCA is launching a new campaign aimed at helping women reconnect with creativity while supporting arts education and creative confidence among young people.
Born Creative, launching in October around International Day of the Girl (11 October), is backed by MECCA’s M-POWER social change initiative and includes a $250,000 contribution to Australian education organisation The Song Room, which funds and helps deliver arts education experiences to primary school students.
Since it was founded in 1999, The Song Room has seen over 500,000 students and teachers participating in its programs.
The Song Room. Photo supplied
MECCA is also funding free creative workshops for more than 500 girls and gender-diverse teenagers across Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand through preventative mental health charity The Flourish Journey. The workshops will focus on creativity, confidence, curiosity and self-expression, while also providing resources for parents and carers.
The campaign follows research commissioned by MECCA and conducted by Ipsos in March 2026, which surveyed 2,000 Australian women aged 16 and over. It found that two-thirds of women felt creative most or all of the time as children, compared with one-third as adults.
More than half (56 percent) said they noticed a decline in their creative confidence between the ages of 12 and 24, with 40 percent identifying the high-school years of 12 to 17 as a key period. Self-consciousness and fear of judgment were the most commonly cited reasons.
The research also found that 68 percent of women consider creativity important to their sense of self, while 54 percent said it improves wellbeing and happiness. Among women aged 16 to 24, 73 percent said creativity was important to their sense of self.
MECCA is hosting three workshops led by some of Australia’s leading and emerging artists – fashion designer Poppy Lissiman, Sydney musician Tiffi and makeup artist and stylist Soraya Boularas – at MECCA Bourke Street, Melbourne.
• Paint your makeup case with Poppy Lissiman on 8 October
• Write your own lyrics with singer-songwriter Tiffi on 15 October
• Master a bold eye with Soraya Boularas on 22 October
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