Authentic young women’s voices need to be heard

Grime music truly embodies the vibrant energy and feel of youth culture in London today, and it has taken the world by storm: this summer, Stormzy is on the main stage at Glastonbury.

It’s a genre on the ascent, but it is also a highly masculine one, and that made me want to develop an idea that views this world through a female lens.

Four months into my internship as part of the Creative Access scheme, Thunderclap Media managing director Claire Zolkwer came to me to discuss a brief from BBC3, as I am part of their target demographic age group.

We discussed a show that is diverse, uncovers sub-cultures and is reflective of the youth of today. I immediately thought of grime, and a show that presents the female perspective. I wanted to help empower the women of grime and bring their voices and experiences to the fore.

I worked with Claire to evolve this idea into a TV pitch. Initially, I thought of following a group of female MCs as they set up a radio station. After some discussion, this became a constructed-reality format, and instead of a radio station, they would launch a podcast.

I contacted several female artists to gauge their thoughts on the project and to create a sizzle, which the channel loved. Galdem Sugar got the greenlight just before Christmas.

From the beginning, we knew that for it to truly work, we needed to make it a collaborative experience with our contributors, working with them to find out what they wanted to portray on screen.

I had the pleasure of being able to work on the production as a researcher, so I learned a great deal about what it takes to make a show like this, and the importance of gaining the contributors’ trust so they would be their authentic selves when the cameras rolled.

I was straight out of university when this process began, and it has been a fantastic first job for me. I feel grateful to have been able to see it come to fruition with the team at Thunderclap.

• Ayesha Carrick is a junior researcher at Thunderclap Media and creator of BBC3’s Galdem Sugar, which debuted on 30 May and is available as a podcast on BBC Sounds