Dressember 2018

This will be my third December in a row wearing a dress every day to raise awareness and money to end human trafficking. Dressember works with partner organizations all over the world who are working to end human trafficking, rehabilitate survivors, and end the demand by revolutionizing supply chains and manufacturing. Not only that, but the awareness that I have seen raised in the last 3 years since joining as an advocate my first year has been astounding.

For example, did you know:

There are currently more than 30 million people enslaved worldwide.

Human trafficking generates about $150 billion a year.

About 2 million children are currently exploited in the global sex trade.

All these stats and a lot more information are directly from the Dressember website.

What began as a fashion challenge started by one creative woman is now a global movement of advocates who wear a dress or a tie every single day in December in an effort to change those stats.

As someone who has always had a passion for style and a desire to remain involved in as much activism as possible, this challenge really stood out to me the first time I heard about it, and I joined the following year. It really is the most special thing to do something you really love, and be making an actionable and measurable difference in the meantime.

If you want, please donate a few dollars to my campaign here. ❤

If you’re interested, you can click through here for a link to all the grant partners that Dressember works with! These organizations operate all over the world, including within the US, and accomplish things like rescuing individuals from trafficking, providing them aftercare and education, and pushing political advocacy to make policy changes.

THIS YEAR I’m pushing my creativity even further by committing to Disneybound every day of the month too! 😮 Here is the schedule put forward by my awesome team!

Part of the heart of Dressember too, however, is an effort to be more thoughtful and ethical in the way we purchase our clothes. The garment industry can be a very dark place internationally, and one that actually contributes to the human trafficking trade. So just running out to Forever 21 or Amazon to purchase all my Disneybound items really didn’t fit with the heart of the project!

Starting with what I had in my closet is obviously the most ethical way of shopping! This leads to zero waste and zero additional items purchased from anywhere. I had a pretty good selection of dresses and accessories in my closet and so I sat down literally with my notebook and wrote out all the Disneybounds I could make with what is in my closet OR with the addition of just one or two details/accessories. I only needed two different dresses, and some accessories!

Next up, thrift stores! Thrift stores and apps like Poshmark can also be a great way to shop more ethically! Even though you’re buying an item that may not have initially been produced ethically, your purchase not only saves that piece of clothing from ending up in a landfill, but also isn’t giving any money to support the production of new products in that way. It really is recycling and it has a lot of massive effects. There are plenty of clothes out there! Buffalo Exchange, Poshmark, and Goodwill helped me find a lot of the pieces that I did end up needing!

Lastly, I purchased two dresses through Elegantees. They not only have a fully ethical production line BUT their mission is to end human trafficking. They work with Dressember each year for a full collection, and I purchased two dresses that I really, really love and will wear all the time, long after my Disneybound challenge is over!

So, I look forward to sharing more about my challenge throughout the month! While I probably won’t post on my feed every single day, I’ll keep all the days posted on my story, and I’ve started a new highlight on my instagram page too, so you can peek back at all the days of Disneybounds!

Here are a few examples of previous things I’ve done in a dress, all in the spirit of Dressember! 🙂