Dressember is a community of international advocates utilizing fashion and creativity to help end human trafficking. Each year, advocates around the world take on the challenge of wearing a dress (or a tie) during the 31 days of December in order to raise awareness and fundraise to support anti-trafficking organizations.
Human trafficking is a thriving business. The International Labor Organization estimates that this illegal industry brings in over $236 billion dollars annually. It isn't a niche problem, it's a massive human-centered problem, and one that we can all help fight through our everyday actions.
My friend Kearci, a long time Dressember advocate, inspired me to join her in raising awareness for human trafficking. I knew very little about the topic before participating, and even less about how I could stop it. Taking on this challenge gave me the push to do my research and share my findings with my community. It gave me a greater awareness of how my own actions can contribute to ending modern slavery - particularly through my purchasing habits, especially clothing.
For 31 days, I woke up and put on a dress. Then I took pictures (or asked a friend to take pictures) of myself in that dress, before drafting that day’s social post, which used my dress as a way into trafficking awareness. Each post also included educational statistics, stories of trafficking survivors, non-profits to support, or tips to empower readers to change their own consumer habits, plus a link to donate.
Wearing a dress for 31 days in cold Chicago temperatures, and spending an hour each day engaging with the same heavy, yet important topic, shaped how I see the world — both the gravity of suffering and my role in making a difference. Advocating for Dressember helped restore and affirm my personal hope that most people want Good to win, and Evil to lose. And they’ll work toward making that true too.
After 3 Decembers, I raised over $14k and my team raised a collective $130k.
Human trafficking is a thriving business. The International Labor Organization estimates that this illegal industry brings in over $236 billion dollars annually. It isn't a niche problem, it's a massive human-centered problem, and one that we can all help fight through our everyday actions.
My friend Kearci, a long time Dressember advocate, inspired me to join her in raising awareness for human trafficking. I knew very little about the topic before participating, and even less about how I could stop it. Taking on this challenge gave me the push to do my research and share my findings with my community. It gave me a greater awareness of how my own actions can contribute to ending modern slavery - particularly through my purchasing habits, especially clothing.
For 31 days, I woke up and put on a dress. Then I took pictures (or asked a friend to take pictures) of myself in that dress, before drafting that day’s social post, which used my dress as a way into trafficking awareness. Each post also included educational statistics, stories of trafficking survivors, non-profits to support, or tips to empower readers to change their own consumer habits, plus a link to donate.
Wearing a dress for 31 days in cold Chicago temperatures, and spending an hour each day engaging with the same heavy, yet important topic, shaped how I see the world — both the gravity of suffering and my role in making a difference. Advocating for Dressember helped restore and affirm my personal hope that most people want Good to win, and Evil to lose. And they’ll work toward making that true too.
After 3 Decembers, I raised over $14k and my team raised a collective $130k.
