March 17th, 2018: This week Liam tweeted in support of the Australian anti-bullying campaign “Speak, even if your voice shakes”. In his tweet Liam quoted a tweet from the Australian television The Project in which a video explaining the campaign is shown. In the video various celebrities including Liam, Troye Sivan, Instagrammers Tammy Hembrow and Kayla Itsines, sports stars Johnathan Thurston and Patrick Dangerfield, and Academy Award nominee, Margot Robbie talk about bullying and the stigma attached to it which prevents people from seeking help. Combined these celebrities have over 80 million followers, so they have the enormous potential to reach a very large audience with their anti-bullying message.

The campaign was launched in memory of Dolly Everett, a 14 year old Australian girl who committed suicide earlier this year as a consequence of being bullied online. The campaign “Speak, even if you voice shakes” indeed takes its name after a note that Dolly left on a sketch. Dolly’s family hopes that the campaign will help kids that are being bullied come forward to seek help so that the lives of young people like Dolly can be saved. Liam in the video remarks that we should all make it easier for people that are being bullied to come forward. Indeed, it is estimated that when people being bullied come forward and ask for help, the bullying ceases in 30% of the cases and it is reduced in 40% of the cases.

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Suicide is the leading cause of death in young people in Australia and in many other countries. Because 1/4 of young people between the age of 14 and 25 are being bullied, bullying is responsible for a large number of these deaths. Bullying occurs across all environments from school, to work, to online. Measures are in place in most of these environments to counteract bullying but unfortunately too often victims do not come forward.

The “Speak, even if your voice shakes” was launched on the eve of the eighth National Day of Action against Bullying and Violence (NDA) (March 16th, 2018) in Australia when Australian schools stand united in their communities to stand against bullying and violence. Dolly’s family has also established a Trust called Dolly’s Dream and they are encouraging Facebook users to either wear blue in their profile picture or to change their profile picture for a blue butterfly, the symbol of the Trust.

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