Since 2019, the account has grown to become a community of 128K finance enthusiasts who are sharing about banking, money, and the industry that has it all. While the page collects anonymous confessions and tackles important matters about mental health, gender inequality, work-life balance and work abuse, some of the content is also positive and lighthearted.
Ri Sharma, a 21-year-old content strategist, is the founder and the voice behind Wall Street Confessions. The idea to create this Instagram account came to her when she was studying at Marymount Manhattan College, she told The Business of Business. Investment banking was her dream job since she was 16, so ever since she began studying finance, she started emailing anyone who’s anyone in the business.
Sadly, that didn't work out and Ri started to notice that there was very little honesty in banking: "When I was recruiting as a young woman of color, I thought that there were deeply rooted problems in the industry that no one was talking about. And I decided to start an anonymous confessions page for people on Wall Street. And I was 19."
It began with only a few confessions from Ri’s friends who worked or interned in finance. The creator of the account asked them to tell her one or two things that happened while they were working on the Street, and these stories quickly picked up traction. Ri noticed that a lot of women started sharing their stories about gender and equality: "Women really, were and continue to be the backbone of the page by being so vulnerable so consistently."
Also, people seem to be very surprised when they meet her or find out who she is. "Whether it's through an interview, or through just looking at my Instagram and finding my personal [account]. They're always very surprised that I'm a woman. And I'm so young," she explained.
When it comes to making an impact, Ri mentioned that her posts get people thinking at least on a granular level: "If someone's been working for 90 hours a week, or 80 hours a week, and they see something on my page, and they don't feel so alone, I view that as impact in and of itself. Because that is what the page is meant for."
Before uploading people’s confessions online, the creator posts them as is, with the exception of grammatical edits. She tries to be "as authentic as humanly possible without bothering the person who I know nothing about". However, recently she started asking anonymous confessors to share their LinkedIn account just to be sure that the source is real. "There's a shift as the page grows and evolves, and as I'm progressing," she told Forbes.
Ri Sharma continues to advocate for people working on Wall Street, especially women and minorities who tend to be the most vulnerable in such fast-paced work environments. "I'm very fortunate that initially women were brave in sharing their own stories," she said. Of course, it’s difficult to tackle such deeply rooted issues but by talking about them, people are starting to take action and seek change.
