A New Face at GLSEN!

Hi, I’m Hallie, the new intern for the Communications Department here at GLSEN! I’m incredibly excited to be joining such an amazing team, and I’m looking forward to connecting with all of you across the internet too!

Everyone has their own path to discovering what they are passionate about, and in many ways, I’m still at the beginning of mine. But my involvement in activism and human rights started my sophomore year of college, after I had lived with depression for many years and was finally diagnosed with an eating disorder. BED (Binge Eating Disorder) is something that many people struggle with but isn’t widely discussed. I felt a lot of shame and fear and became more depressed. By a stroke of luck (and a lot of time spent on the internet) I found the body positive feminist community. For the first time in my life, I was seeing images of people with a huge amount of diversity: size, race, gender identity, ability, and more. I started to realize that there is beauty in differences, and I didn’t have to be ashamed for not looking the way I thought I was supposed to. This mentality spread across my whole life, and I wanted to bring the acceptance of differences into the lives of as many individuals as I could reach: both those struggling with being different, and those who struggle to accept differences.

I graduated from Binghamton University last May, and while I was there I was part of the Women, Gender, and Sexuality studies department. This gave me the opportunity to learn from an academic standpoint about historical and global approaches to countering and embracing diversity. I am very passionate about trans rights, size acceptance, intersectionality and inclusivity among all activist and social justice circles, ensuring that minority voices within the LGBTQ+ community are heard (such as the sometimes quieter  bisexual, genderqueer, or asexual voices) and in general, human rights. However, to me, the most important thing is ensuring that everyone knows they matter. As a human being, as an individual, as one’s self I just want to say:  you are important. Diversity and difference are what make the world interesting!

I’m still coming to terms with my own struggles and recovery, but I believe that everyone has obstacles in their path, and in my case, those obstacles actually helped divert me onto the right path. My life has shaped me into a person who wants to be there to help others the same way others were there to help me. I hope that during my time at GLSEN I can share stories that inspire, encourage, and enlighten those who feel different or help to open the minds of those who don’t yet see the beauty of difference. GLSEN helps create safe spaces in schools and society, and I’m happy to be a part of that mission.