About

Our Origin Story

In September 2010, in response to a rash of suicides that claimed the lives of several LGBTQ+ youth, Dan Savage and his partner Terry Miller posted the first It Gets Better video on YouTube, urging young LGBTQ+ people to stay true to themselves despite bullying and other challenges of adolescence.

The message was simple – no matter how difficult things may be, it can get better. Those words, and the sentiment behind them, went viral, inspiring more than 70,000 people to share their personal stories of resilience and triumph — everyday folks, but also celebrities like Kelly Clarkson, Adam Lambert, Ellen DeGeneres, Laverne Cox, Gabrielle Union, Gigi Gorgeous, Zachary Qunto, Neil Patrick Harris… even presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden. The result propelled It Gets Better to become the world’s largest storytelling effort to uplift and empower LGBTQ+ youth.

Fourteen years later, with an Emmy Award and a New York Times bestselling book in tow, It Gets Better affirms the lives of hundreds of thousands of young people every year. Through powerful storytelling and media campaigns, impactful educational programming, and global community-building initiatives, It Gets Better reaches and connects with LGBTQ+ youth before they are in crisis – helping them to navigate their sexual orientation and/or gender identity journey with life-affirming resources paving the way to a future with limitless possibilities.