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#BeKind21

Born This Way Foundation hosts #BeKind21 annually, which calls on participants to practice an act of kindness each day from September 1st to September 21st with the mission of building kinder, more connected communities that foster mental wellness. Individuals are invited to take the pledge and share their experience on social media using the hashtag #BeKind21. We make sure to meet our participants where they are, sharing graphics reminding them that kindness is prioritizing time to care for your own mental health, kindness is caring for the environment, kindness is advocating for an inclusive world that celebrates everyone for who they are, and more.

Culminating on the U.N. International Day of Peace, #BeKind21 invites schools and colleges to kick off the new school year by establishing kinder habits, and for corporate partners, nonprofit partners, and all other participants to head into the fall with a spirit of compassion and kindness across their organizations and in their communities.

Find inspiring stories from 2021’s campaign on Channel Kindness and learn about 2021’s #BeKind21 by the numbers here:

  • Those who signed up for #BeKind21 were encouraged to report whether they were inviting colleagues, classmates, or other members of their communities to participate in their “Kindness Teams” as well. The total number of Kindness Team members signed up via the online form is over 6.8 million.
  • Overall, participants pledged to do over 143 million acts of kindness globally.
  • Over 400 partners, including entire school districts, cities, nonprofits, and corporations, participated in the campaign and helped to spread the word.
  • On Twitter and Instagram, #BeKind21 generated over 29,000 social media posts, reached over 185 million unique accounts, and received over 2.8 billion impressions.
  • #BeKind21 is a 2021 Webby Social Honoree in Public Service + Activism.

Our over 400 partners, representing a variety of fields, showed their acts of kindness through social media, including:

A growing body of research has demonstrated the tangible benefits of kindness, for communities and for individuals. In early 2021, Born This Way Foundation worked with Harris Poll to survey over 2,000 young people for the Kindness Is Action report, which found most young people say experiencing more kindness would improve their mental wellness—be it from others (73%), themselves (74%), or observed in the world around them (71%). And, according to Born This Way Foundation’s 2017 Kind Communities – A Bridge to Youth Mental Wellness report, young people who describe their environments as kind are more likely to be mentally healthy. That’s true for youth in high schools, colleges, and the workplace.

Learn more about our #BeKind21 past campaigns in our 2021 Press Release, 2020 Press Release, and 2019 Press Release.

Here are a few of our favorite posts from 2021 #BeKind21 participants:

@pacsun

sprinkle on some kindness. 🍩 @btwfoundation ##bekind21 ##bekind ##pacsun

♬ original sound – 😘🙈☺️
@katespade

our ##bekind21 gift for you. (thanks, ali!) get your #a#nchorbox now or send this to a ❤️ one. #be#kind #me#ntalhealthawareness

♬ original sound – kate spade new york