This month's subscriptions benefit the
Pop Culture Hero Coalition
It’s been quite a long time since I was in public school. I graduated high school in 2006. The internet was still very early in everyday use, and we still had dial up at home. I still remember the first time we had an anti-bullying conversation is school. I was in 8th grade. To be honest, I really hadn’t given the topic of bullying much thought having not experienced bullying.
To this day, I don’t know if this was something that was a district wide initiative or if it was for my school directly. I was very lucky to attend a public arts school for grades 6-12. Instead of sports, we had 6 different art forms. Combined with often advanced academics, we were a whole school of nerdy, artistic kids. Often kids interested in sports would transfer out for high school to participate.
While public, there was an application process to attend. In middle school, there averaged about 100 kids per grade, and in high school this number frequently dropped as kids transferred to other schools. My graduating class has 52 students, with 100% of the students graduating. Even if you we’re friends with someone, it was almost like a sibling vibe, where you know that everyone has your back.
I can’t even begin to imagine what kids go through today. Between the internet and private means of communication (like texts and DMs) it’s so different from 2006. I had an email address for most of high school. My friends and I used AIM (AOL Instant Messenger) after school to talk. We didn’t have apps directly on our phones (if we even had a cell phone) that put messages in your face 24/7.
The CDC states that more that 1 in 3 high school students experience persistent feelings of sadness and hopelessness in 2019, which was a 40% increase from their 2009 study. In that same 2019 study, 1 in 6 students reported making suicide plans in the past year, a 44% increase from 2009. These feelings were more common in LGBTQ identifying students and female identifying students. The same report also did research into bullying and harassment. They found that Lesbian, gay, or bisexual students and students not sure of their sexual identity were more likely to experience electronic bullying, bullying at school, forced sexual situations, physical dating violence than the heterosexual students. Almost half of lesbian, gay, or bisexual students seriously considered suicide in 2019.
TLDR; LGTBQ+ students are unfairly targeted and need extra support.
August Donations: The Pop Culture Hero Coalition
The Pop Culture Hero Coalition (PCHC) is the first non-profit to use TV, film, and comics to teach real-life heroism and mental health skills to children and teens is a way that’s easy to relate to. Founded in 2013, PCHC uses evidence-based psychology combined with heroic characters and stories. Their main goals focus on anti-bullying, social emotional learning, and mental health. This includes bullying (in schools, cyber, LGTBQ+), racism, misogyny, and mental health topics like suicide. As of 2021 due to their partnership with YMCA USA, the Heroic Journey Curriculum is impacting approximately 200,000 kids in grades K to 8th and their parents.
Other ways to help:
September's Sticker and Magnet Designs
This month our subscribers get one 3” stickers and/or one 3.5” magnet featuring these comic book inspired kindness text bubbles.
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STICKER CLUB
CLUB PRICE: $5.00 Includes:
10% of all subscription sales are donated to our monthly featured non-profit.
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MAGNET CLUB
CLUB PRICE: $9.00 Includes:
10% of all subscription sales are donated to our monthly featured non-profit.
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COMBO CLUB
CLUB PRICE: $14.00 Includes:
10% of all subscription sales are donated to our monthly featured non-profit.
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