The archive · Content & Film · Product decision · 2025
ItsHerWay turns mothers' career gaps into AI-published books — Loeries Gold
Saatchi & Saatchi built ItsHerWay an AI platform that turns a mother's career break into a published book — résumé gap becomes authored proof of growth.
ItsHerWay · Saatchi & Saatchi Dubai
What it had to solve
A PwC study cited by the campaign found that 44% of women in MENA have stepped away from work to prioritise family and caregiving, and that nearly half of them face job rejections because of the time away. ItsHerWay, a platform for female entrepreneurs in the region, wanted to turn that career interruption from a liability into an asset.
How it works
In MENA, a PwC study cited by the campaign found that 44% of women have paused their careers for family and caregiving, and that nearly half of those women face job rejections because of the time away. A résumé gap — motherhood itself — was being read as a lack of commitment.
ItsHerWay, a platform supporting female entrepreneurs across the region, and Saatchi & Saatchi Dubai answered not with a film about the problem but with a tool: Rewrite the Gap, an AI-powered platform where a mother answers personalised prompts about her experience and is guided through writing and publishing her own book.
The book turns the perceived interruption into published proof of growth, creativity and emotional intelligence — something a cover letter could never say. ItsHerWay founder Armin Jamula called it honouring the truth that every mother's experience is singular, while Saatchi's creative chief Sebastien Boutebel framed authorship as the new bridge back to the workforce.
Launched in April 2025 as what the partners called a regional first in AI-enabled self-publishing, the initiative took a Craft Gold for Digital Design and a Silver for Use of AI at the Loeries 2025 and was also entered into the Epica Awards. No figures on books published or women re-hired were released at launch.
Why it lands
- It attacked the stigma itself instead of the symptom: the career gap was not hidden or explained away but turned into the deliverable.
- The book made an intangible human experience into verifiable, portable proof that a recruiter could hold.
- AI did the heavy lifting of writing support, making authorship realistic for women with no writing or publishing background.
- The insight was quantified and regional — 44% of MENA women affected — so the tool answered a measured, shared problem.
- It reframed caregiving as professional development, inviting employers to value lived experience rather than penalise it.
What it did
The reframe was the product: instead of hiding time away from work, women could show a published book demonstrating commitment and self-development. The initiative won a Craft Gold for Digital Design and a Silver for Use of AI at the Loeries 2025 and drew coverage across MENA marketing press; no count of books or re-hired women was reported at launch.
What you can take
When the audience's weakness is really a story they cannot tell, build the tool that lets them tell it: the product becomes the message, and every published book becomes the proof.
Since then
Rewrite the Gap launched on 23–25 April 2025 with coordinated coverage in MENA marketing press and remains live as a self-publishing service for ItsHerWay's community. It won a Craft Gold for Digital Design and a Silver for Use of AI at the Loeries 2025 in Cape Town, was entered into the Epica Awards 2025, and became a cited example of using AI for social reframing rather than content automation. The longer-term question — whether published books measurably change re-hiring — remained open, since neither partner reported participation or hiring outcomes.
Sources
- Rewrite the Gap: turning career gaps into chapters of empowerment for mothers in the Middle East
- Saatchi & Saatchi and ItsHerWay empower MENA moms with 'Rewrite the Gap'
- #Loeries2025 Night 1 | All the winners
- Saatchi & Saatchi ME 'Rewrite the Gap' — Epica Awards entry
spotted an error? The archive wants to know.
Your turn
You just read one. Describe the brief you are staring at, and see who has been given the same problem.
Free account · 3 free questions · no card