Rachel Lowenstein fosters neurodiversity through Mindshare work

As an autistic woman helping reshape how marketers and the world see autism, Rachel Lowenstein has brought a new ad industry focus to neurodiversity. This year, Lowenstein, 33, global head of inclusive innovation at WPP’s Mindshare, spearheaded #AutisticOutLoud, an advocacy campaign with Getty Images and Hiki, a neurodiversity-centric friendship and dating app targeted to people with autism. The effort, launched at Cannes, combats stereotypes with self-portraits of autistic creators representing themselves. The portraits live on the Getty Disability Collection and Unsplash for public use, with Google’s Neu Project and IBM’s Weather Company among the partners using them. See all of Ad Age’s 40 Under 40 honorees here “The work I did with Getty Images this summer, it felt like my entire career was leading to doing that work,” said Lowenstein, who was diagnosed with autism only three years ago. “There were a lot of emotions that went into that, but one thing specifically I faced was how abysmal autistic representation is in media and how we have been spoken over, spoken for. Almost every representation that you see of autism in media is not correct.” She also led the development of the Impact Index, an industry-first human safety tool, with Tyson Foods, which examines the human impact of online content on minority communities, enabling marketers to optimize their spending away from harmful or hateful content and toward media with positive impact. In addition, Lowenstein co-led Mindshare’s and GroupM’s bodily autonomy research in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court striking down Roe v. Wade, exploring reproductive rights and the impact of losing bodily autonomy. She also co-founded the Mindshare Collective to promote intersectional diversity in 16 markets globally. Her partnerships have made a significant impact, including the Mindshare/WPP partnership with IBM to mitigate bias in ad tech such as AI algorithms. Lowenstein's advocacy on such issues led to her being asked to co-lead the newly formed Inclusive Media Strategic Action Platform for the United Nations Women’s Unstereotype Alliance. “We’re now working with clients around the globe on how they can use their media and marketing for social good,” she said. Lowenstein described her career as starting with a more traditional innovation role, “then starting to see how we can use inclusivity as a creative mechanism while also solving social problems.” Ad Age Media Summit Hear from industry leaders during October event in NYC Register here If you could have dinner with one person, alive or dead, who would it be and why? I’d have dinner with myself as a kid. She’s my hero—and everything I do is for her and to emulate her. I’d want to tell her everything will work out, we can face it, and that breaks are OK. I’d tell her to not let all the magical things about you be tamed in our teenage years and 20s because some people won’t appreciate everything that makes us special. What are the top two social media sites you use on a regular basis? For creating, TikTok and Instagram. For consuming, TikTok and Pinterest. What’s currently on your bedside reading list? I’m impatiently waiting for book two ("Iron Flame") in Rebecca Yaros’ “Empryean” series to come out in November. I’m obsessed with “Fourth Wing”—the world, the characters, even the battle scenes, which I normally skip through in books. It’s a fun read. I’m currently reading “The Ten Thousand Doors of January,” by Alix E. Harrow. Fantasy is 99% of what I read. I love escapism. What was the last show you binge-watched? Does watching Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour livestreams on Twitch almost every weekend since March count? Taylor’s music means so much to me—her storytelling abilities are unmatched, she’s breaking every record and people still write her talents off because she makes music that mostly appeals to women and girls. At what age do you hope to retire? When I stop having an opinion I need to shout about, I’ll retire. I think I’ll always be writing, storytelling and creating in service of trying to do a little bit of good in the world. See all of Ad Age’s 40 Under 40 honorees here

Rachel Lowenstein fosters neurodiversity through Mindshare work

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