It's bigger than a dress.

Our community is working to dismantle human trafficking from every angle, and we’re doing it in a dress.

The Power of Awareness

There is power within your radius, and Dressember encourages our advocates to get educated right where you are. Check out our blog →

where all people are free to live vibrant, autonomous lives.

Modern slavery is real. But through our small, everyday actions, we can help end it.

We know you want to change the world. We also know that it can be tough to know where to start. We believe that changing the world shouldn’t be so hard, which is why we provide fun, interactive advocacy opportunities for you to meaningfully engage in the fight to end human trafficking no matter where you are and what season of life you’re in.

Join our Dressember Style Challenge this winter.

Registration opens October 2019.

TEDx: OUR STORY

“Something that started as a simple idea became a global movement that created a pathway for not just me, but thousands of people to put a stop to one of the greatest injustices of our time. ”

— Blythe hill, ceo + founder

TELL THE WORLD WHY

#Itsbiggerthanadress

Today we honor Mae Jemison, who on September 12, 1992 became the first African-American woman to travel in space when she went into orbit aboard the Space Shuttle Endeavor.
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Jemison was born with a desire to learn. At 16, Jemison graduated high school to attend Stanford University on a scholarship. There, she attained her Bachelor of Science in Chemical Engineering and a Bachelor of Arts in African and African-American studies. She went on to earn her doctorate in medicine from Cornell University in 1981. With some experience as a practitioner, Jemison joined the Peace Corps for two and a half years. Following Sally Ride’s historic moment as the first American woman in space, Jemison applied for NASA’s astronaut program. She felt that this was the perfect moment for more opportunities in the field. In 1987, she was one of the 15 candidates selected out of 2,000 for NASA’s next mission.
On September 12, 1992, Jemison made history. Over the course of her only space voyage, Jemison logged 190 hours, 30 minutes, and 23 seconds in space. Jemison left the program in 1993 and since then has created programs to encourage students to be interested in science. She also has taken over the 100-Year Starship program, which hopes to make human space travel beyond the solar system a reality within the next century.
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As Jemison once said on NPR “I want to make sure that that future that we're creating is one that is the best it can be for people around the world, and also one that includes the full range of our talent and our skills - and, you know, gender and ethnicity, geography - to solving the world's problems.” #dressember #blackhistory #blackhistorymatters #untilallarefree

When you begin learning about human trafficking, it can be overwhelming. Looking at statistics that read that tens of millions of people are currently enslaved, can make us feel small, helpless. "How am I supposed help so many people? I'm just one person." But that's just it.
You are one person. One person that the world needs. When we combine our efforts, join the fight together, we can make a difference. By joining organizations that stand up for the rights of the oppressed, you make a difference. By shopping ethically, or writing to your government about these serious issues, you make a difference. By wearing a dress (or putting on a tie) for the month of December, you make a difference. There is power in numbers, and those numbers need you.
#dressember #endslavery #untilallarefree #everydayadvocacy #endit #enditmovement

Come one, come all! Have you been training? Have you been looking for the perfect tie or dress? If you answered uh, yes, or no, we’d love to have you join the 5k. + Find a friend (or two) to run with and raise awareness about human trafficking. Excited to see our community grow as we support all people’s deserved honor. 📸: @shannon_leith

#dressember5k #youcandoanythinginadress #endhumantrafficking #untilallarefree

You, yes you! We see those raised hands in excitement. You have two days left to grab 'You Can Do Anything in a Dress' 5k early bird tickets before prices go up March 1st. +
Early bird tickets are $40. Find the link in our bio to register! 📸: @shannon_leith
#dressember5k #youcandoanythinginadress #endslavery #untilallarefree #endhumantrafficking

Today we honor Toni Stone, for her trailblazing career as the first female baseball player to play for a professional men’s league. +
Stone began playing baseball when she was a child. Her family, friends, and later husband discouraged her from playing a “male sport”, but, Stone’s craving for athleticism and competition was not swayed. She continued to play and in 1949, she joined the San Francisco Sea Lions of the West Coast Negro Baseball League. But getting on the team didn’t mean it was easier for Stone. As a woman she faced constant insults from fans and fellow teammates for playing in a “man’s game”. Still, Stone played on. She finally got her big break when she was signed on the Indianapolis Clowns in 1953. The team, like the rest of the Negro League had lost popularity dramatically since Jackie Robinson had integrated the Majors in 1947. Stone being signed on was meant to be more of a spectacle than potential talent she could bring to the team. But this did not affect her. Stone appeared in 50 games that year. In 1993 she was inducted into the Women's Sports Hall of Fame in Long Island, New York.
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She once confided in her teammate Al Lombardi, “A woman has her dreams, too. When you finish high school, they tell a boy to go out and see the world. What do they tell a girl? They tell her to go next door and marry the boy that their families picked for her. It wasn’t right.
A woman can do many things.” #dressember #blackhistory #blackhistorymatters #untilallarefree

Sometimes it's hard to give. It's hard to give up our talents, money, time, etc. for problems that we don't personally see or feel affect us. Yet, these problems do affect us. They constantly surround us, hidden from society, but still there. So when we give, it's us telling our fellow human beings of the world that we DO see them and we will fight for them.
#dressember #itsbiggerthanadress #endslavery #endhumantrafficking #untilallarefree

How will you use your privilege?
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#dressember #itsbiggerthanadress #endslavery #untilallarefree #bethechange

Today we honor Zora Neale Hurston for her words that portrayed the racial struggles in the early 20th century American South. Author of African-American literature and an anthropologist, Hurston published four novels and more than 50 essays, short stories, and plays. Her most famous work was her 1937 novel Their Eyes Were Watching God. +
Hurston was an active member of the Harlem Renaissance. Befriending notable figures like Langston Hughes and Countee Cullen, they created works to express the African-American experience. Being an anthropologist, Hurston, traveled to Haiti and Jamaica, where she studied African religions. Her research from these trips was then incorporated in her writings. She dedicated herself to promoting and studying black culture. However, despite her many years of research, writings, and work to bring the arts to the African-American community, Hurston never gained recognition in her lifetime. It wasn't until 1972 when Alice Walker marked her formally unmarked grave that people finally took notice of the influential work of Hurston. Today she is regarded as one of the most influential writers of the 20th century.
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As Alice Walker said on American Masters,
“Her work had a sense of black people as complete, complex, undiminished human beings and that was crucial to me as a writer.” #dressember #blackhistory #blackhistorymatters #untilallarefree

Today as part of #FashionFriday we're highlighting Amma's Umma, an online fashion boutique (and physical boutique in Port Angeles, WA). Committed to providing fair trade products of quality, Amma's Umma donates 50% of its proceeds to help orphaned children find their forever homes. Check them out at @ammasumma!

#dressember #itsbiggerthanadress #ethicallymade #ammasumma