Planned Parenthood’s New #IDEFY Campaign Is SO Powerful

Kids these days. They're all about their Snapchat, drones, and being cool right? Wrong. With its latest campaign, #IDEFY, Planned Parenthood is hoping to make Generation Z into a group of revolutionaries that will fight for what they believe in. To spread the word, Planned Parenthood has enlisted a trio of internet celebrities to share their own experiences with their bodies, health care, and more. Set to honor the 44th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, #IDEFY hopes to offer empowerment to a whole new generation. It wants young people to defy the new administration and speak out against misogyny, racism, and exclusion.

"Young people today have never lived in a world where abortion wasn’t safe and legal, but we have not taken that right for granted," said Kersha Deibel, director of Generation Action, a division of Planned Parenthood that focuses on young people. "We know that our ability to achieve reproductive freedom is tied to our ability to live free from the threat of violence and discrimination in all forms. We don’t abide by outdated social norms, we understand that all of the pieces of our identity overlap and either make us more likely to experience privilege or to experience discrimination."

For #IDEFY, which is billed as Planned Parenthood's largest initiative to date, the organization enlisted YouTubers TheNotAdam, Evelyn From The Internets, and Unapologetically Bria Bea. In the first set of videos, each YouTuber points out that we've already made advances in things such as more inclusive emoji and outdated classifications of sexuality, but that we've still got a ways to go. They also encourage everyone to defy societal norms — and outline exactly how each and every one of us can join in. According to Teen Vogue, all you have to do is "post a picture of your fist with DEFY written across your knuckles to the platform of your choosing and, using the hashtag #IDEFY, [explain] what harmful idea you fight against in your own life." The submissions will all be collected and all the issues will be turned into a piece of art. On January 22 — the official anniversary of Roe v. Wade — the artwork will be symbolically destroyed. The whole thing will be streamed on Facebook Live.

But that's not all. Planned Parenthood plans to keep the work going long after the Women's March. #IDEFY is a part of a five-year initiative meant to identify, mobilize, and train supporters to fight the long battles ahead. To learn more, visit www.defynow.org.