Blog Post
Happy 14th Birthday, It Gets Better
From the first It Gets Better video, to RAINBOW Doritos (yup, they were a thing), to MTV, to President Obama’s It Gets Better video and more — help us celebrate our 14th year of uplifting, empowering, and connecting LGBTQ+ youth by taking a walk down memory lane with some of our fave It Gets Better moments in the news!
Do you remember any of these?
It Gets Better: Dan and Terry – The video that started it all.
It Gets Better in The New York Times less than one month after the first vid is kind of a flex.
Did we mention the president recorded a video?
… and that the videos became a book.
And from there, we taped TWO It Gets Better specials for MTV!
It Gets Better became the FIRST EVER LGBTQ+ non-profit to win an Emmy Award.
We did a web series where we caught up with some of the biggest stars in Hollywood about how it got better for them — from Raven Symone to Adam Lambert to Jane Lynch and more. Check it out!
Our campaign with Doritos is still one of the most successful non-profit/brand collaborations in history.
Our former intern McKenna was featured on TODAY for National Coming Out Day.
When the pandemic shut down in-person Pride celebrations, we created the first It Gets Better: A Digital Pride Celebration.
Like many people, we celebrated a milestone birthday (10 years) in a pandemic.
Thankfully, stars like Gigi Gorgeous helped us celebrate by looking back on their original It Gets Better videos.
We launched 50 States. 50 Grants. 5000 Voices with the help of American Eagle and its customers, distributing $500K to middle and high schools around the country.
We were the first LGBTQ+ nonprofit to stop posting on Twitter/X because of anti-trans hate speech.
New Year, New Name… because it’s not just a project, it’s a movement.
Digital Pride year four was another first for us… a charity relay in which we built our first Pride Village in Minecraft.
Earlier this month, we announced our latest round of grant recipients, bringing the grand total to nearly $15 million distributed to projects uplifting LGBTQ+ students in schools around the country.
From our founding board member, Brian Pines…
Today, It Gets Better turns 14. We’ve gone from a grassroots movement to a global nonprofit that, in the last three years alone, has awarded nearly $1.5 million dollars to school-based initiatives to create more inclusive environments for LGBTQ+ students through 50 States. 50 Grants. 5000 Voices. Dozens of LGBTQ+ kids from around the United States have taken part in our Youth Voices program, which makes things better, and safer, for LGBTQ+ youth around the world.
We received an Emmy Award, a Webby, some Shortys, and the It Gets Better book of essays became a bestseller, but it’s never been about accolades for us. It’s something Dan said that stays with me to this day.
“Queer kids need LGBT adults to put this period of their lives into perspective. They need strategies and coping mechanisms that we all use to get through this.” He was right. We know LGBTQ+ youth with support structures and proper resources see a marked improvement in their mental health and are twice as likely to perform well in school. Queer kids NEED It Gets Better.
I now live in a conservative part of the country where the need for what It Gets Better does is clearer to me than ever before. LGBTQ+ youth have the ideas and the determination; they just need our community of supporters to rally around them so they can thrive.
Join me in saying happy birthday to It Gets Better and make a donation today. Every donation enables our staff to do this important and yes, life-saving work.