Image attribution: Claire Gaudriot in collaboration with Les Sans PagEs
For more than a decade, the late Deror Lin’s legendary Coolest Projects session has celebrated the bold, creative, unexpected, and sometimes wonderfully quirky, ideas that make the Wikimedia movement so inspiring.
This year, Coolest Projects returned for a special 25th-anniversary edition event at Wikimania, celebrating a quarter-century of creativity and innovation across the Wikipedia movement. The session also honoured Deror Lin, a prominent member of the Israeli Wikimedia community and the Hebrew Wikipedia, who founded Coolest Projects in 2014. Deror passed away in 2023. The Wikimania ‘coolness committee’, with the help of AI, reviewed hundreds of Wikimedia Projects from the past twenty-five years and combined this research with nominations submitted by the community through an open call to choose the top 10 finalists.
And among the top 10 projects recognised was #SheSaid — a campaign that began with an observation that there were zero women featured on Wikiquote’s main page, and has grown into a worldwide annual movement. Following a presentation on #SheSaid and its journey, shared by co-founder Florence Devouard, the onsite and online audience was invited to vote for their favourite project. #SheSaid secured third place, following Women in Red and Internet Archive Bot, marking a memorable and celebratory milestone in the campaign’s ongoing story.
Amanda Chevtchouk Jurno from the ‘Coolness Committee’, Lead on the Capacity Exchange and Volunteer at Wikimedia Brazil, talking about #SheSaid during the shortlist presentation. Watch it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4uphkYhfTYo
From a Striking Gender Gap on Wikiquote to Building a Strong Global Campaign
When #SheSaid began, co-founders Isla Haddow-Flood and Florence Devouard noticed a striking gap on Wikiquote in 2020: there were no quotes by women featured on the Wikiquote home page.
It was a simple but powerful question: What if we could change that?
The answer became #SheSaid.
What started as a year’s project during the Covid-19 pandemic to represent women’s voices on Wikiquote has grown year after year, inspiring thousands of contributions across twenty-two languages and multiple communities around the world.
Through #SheSaid, volunteers find, document and add women’s voices to Wikiquote — helping make the world’s free knowledge more diverse and representative.
And the campaign continues to grow.
#SheSaid proves how a small idea, powered by a passionate community, can create lasting change across the Wikimedia movement.
A “Cool” recognition for a growing movement
Winning Third Prize at Coolest Projects is more than an award. It’s a celebration of the creativity, persistence and community spirit behind #SheSaid. It recognises the hundreds of contributors, organisers, partners and supporters who have helped the campaign evolve and reach new communities over the years.
Most importantly, it celebrates the idea at the heart of #SheSaid: women’s voices belong in the knowledge we share. From Wikiquote pages created and improved by volunteers to the conversations sparked in communities, every contribution helps build a more diverse and inclusive knowledge ecosystem.
Florence Devouard (#SheSaid co-founder) and Afek Chahed (#SheSaid campaign co-ordinator) on stage in Paris, France
Thank you for making #SheSaid possible
A huge thank you to everyone who has contributed, organised, supported and championed #SheSaid since its inception.
This recognition belongs to the community that continues to show what’s possible when people come together around a simple idea and turn it into action.
And we’re not done yet.
Here’s to more voices, more quotes and more women shaping the knowledge we share in 2026!
Want to learn more about #SheSaid and how you can get involved? Explore the campaign, discover its impact, and find out how you can help make women’s voices more visible in free knowledge.
Explore #SheSaid on our Meta Page: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wiki_Loves_Women/SheSaid/SheSaid_2026
Read more about the campaign on the Wiki Loves Women Website:https://www.wikiloveswomen.org/initiatives/shesaid/