Blog

By Bekah, Youth Voices Alumni As the midterm elections approach, LGBTQ+ rights are once again being put in the spotlight. Elections mean everything from researching which candidates support gender affirming care to explaining to your family why they shouldn’t support anti-LGBTQ+ propositions. Navigating the ballot can be overwhelming and exhausting for anyone. Now, imagine dealingContinue reading “From shaping platforms to civic engagement, queer youth can do anything!”

Written by Christipher, Youth Voices – Fall/Winter 2026 Cohort Learning new perspectives has always intrigued me: from storytime videos on YouTube to  the people I befriended around the world on Roblox. That curiosity extended through adolescence, when I began seeking opportunities to break free from the constraints of my home county. One of these opportunitiesContinue reading “More Than the “Diverse” Kid”

All year long, folks send us emails, share anonymous stories on Tumblr, and drop into our DMs with their coming out stories. Some are joyful. Some are complicated. All of them have value. And no two follow the same script. This National Coming Out Day, here’s a reminder coming out happens on your timeline, whenContinue reading “There’s more than one way to celebrate National Coming Out Day. Find yours here.”

By Daniel, a 16-year-old Youth Voices ambassador (Winter/Fall 2026) who is also a community organizer and educator living in Chicago. Haz click aquí para leer este artículo en español. In traditional Mexican culture, queer youth are too often left in the shadows, distanced from our communities, our culture, and even our language. For LGBTQ+ youth in Spanish-speakingContinue reading “The Power of Words Across Languages”

From rural Alaska to Miami, Florida, these are the grant projects making waves for LGBTQ+ youth in 2025.

Over the past year, Ale, Andrew, Angelo, Bekah, Jay, Marshall, Nashan, and Renc have grown as leaders and formed a powerful bond as allies, colleagues, and friends. Through It Gets Better’s Youth Voices program, they have learned to turn their stories and lived experiences into action, using their voices to help create a future whereContinue reading “Congratulations to our Youth Voices, Class of 2026! “

Earlier this year, we had our Youth Voices create, coordinate, and execute major projects on what they are most passionate about. Our Youth Voice ambassador, Marshall, put out an ask for trans and nonbinary youth to submit images of objects that hold special sentiment to their gender journey. Marshall says: “Initially, I created this itemContinue reading “Mementos That Matter: An Archive of Trans-Affirming Objects”

By Ariella Assouline, Senior Manager of Programs & Operations For me, what makes coming to work each day a privilege is the ability to make the world just a little bit better than it was before. That drive, to help shape brave, self-assured, and well-resourced young people, is the connective thread throughout the It GetsContinue reading “A Rising Tide: Global Update”

In 2021, a 13-year-old queer girl from New Jersey, with a heart of gold and a story to tell, came to It Gets Better with a dream of being a role model for LGBTQ+ POC kids like her. In her application, she wrote: “‘Uplift, empower, and connect LGBTQ+ youth around the globe’ to me meansContinue reading “Our Youngest Member of Youth Voices Is Going To Harvard!”

Learn more about the Summer Reading Challenge and click here to learn more about this year’s featured books. We didn’t have a Kelly Clarkson lyric inspiring a queer YA thriller about a true-crime podcast on our bingo card, but honestly, we should have known better. Jumata Emill’s I Don’t Wish You Well follows aspiring journalistContinue reading “Meet Jumata Emill, Author of “I Don’t Wish You Well””

Every Pride Month, we celebrate the brands that show up for LGBTQ+ youth. Not just with a rainbow logo. Not just with a post that disappears on July 1. But with real support that helps fund programs, create resources, build community, and remind LGBTQ+ young people that they are seen, valued, and never alone. InContinue reading “The Brands That Are Standing By LGBTQ+ Youth in 2026”

By Annabelle, Youth Voices, Class of 2025 We’re looking for more ground-breaking trailblazers like Annabelle! If you have what it takes to make a better world for LGBTQ+ youth, apply for Youth Voices at itgetsbetter.org/YouthVoices by June 21, 2026. Lilli’s suit seemed to be made of fire ants. My transgender friend shrugged her shoulders inwards and anxiouslyContinue reading “A Queer Prom in Indiana shows student-led change is possible. And powerful.”

CLICK HERE for more resources for LGBTQ+ college students. If you’re searching for an LGBTQ+-affirming college, you’ve probably noticed how often the conversation centers on big-name universities in major metros. Those schools can be great, but they’re not the right fit for everyone, nor are they accessible to everyone. Cost, distance from home, campus size,Continue reading “10 most queer-friendly schools in rural communities”

By Brian Wenke, Executive Director, It Gets Better Read the letter or watch the video below! Something happened to me a few months ago that I haven’t been able to shake. I was wearing an It Gets Better hat, and someone came up to me and said, “I don’t know how you can wear that atContinue reading “Someone asked me how I can wear an It Gets Better hat right now!”

We are looking for art, writing, and photographs from LGBTQ+ youth (ages 13-18) to be featured in special youth-created campaigns for Pride 2026. Our Youth Voices are working on individual projects where they are collecting work from LGBTQ+ youth like them to create something impactful, and they need your help! Extended Deadline: Sunday, May 10thContinue reading “Get featured in our Pride 2026 campaign.”

Queer community shows up all over campus and in the surrounding town if you know where to look.

College can be a reset button. A chance to meet people who get you, try new things, and build a life that feels bigger than high school. But queer community doesn’t always show up in a neat little package on day one. Sometimes you find it fast. Sometimes you find it in pieces. Either way,Continue reading “10 experiences every college student should have”

By Bekah (he/him), It Gets Better Youth Voices ambassador Malcolm in the Middle was one of my pandemic shows. The witty humor gave me a break from the new reality of life during Covid. Like Malcolm, I was feeling short-changed. I never got a proper goodbye to my elementary school class and teachers, many ofContinue reading “The “Them” in the Middle”

“The best time to plant a tree was twenty years ago. The second best is now.” It’s a proverb that our It Gets Better: Changemakers youth leaders take to heart. They are those seeds, planted and nurtured throughout the grant program, emerging as a forest of new leaders adding to the foundation of support built by leadersContinue reading “It Gets Better: Changemakers Grantee Spotlight. Meet Delaney”

By Raelee Sweet Teens today navigate a complex digital world. While the data shows U.S. teens spend an average of 4.8 hours of their day on social media, LGBTQ+ youth spend 3.72 more hours online than their cishet peers, and 41% of teens who spend the most time on social media report poor or veryContinue reading “See a difference in your mental health in just 10 minutes!”

With Valentine’s Day just around the corner, we have a couple of ways you can show your love for LGBTQ+ youth, and it’s all about being a visible and vocal ally. 2. Join the nearly 800,000 who have committed to being an outspoken ally for LGBTQ+ youth and take the It Gets Better Pledge. WhenContinue reading “This Valentine’s Day, Say ‘I Love You’ By Being an Ally”

The holidays are right around the corner, and we have a celebration you’re not going to want to miss. Join us December 17 starting at 11:15am PT/2:15pm ET for our “The Bigger Picture: Queer-a-thon” event live on Twitch — more than eight hours of live stream fun and festivities with your global LGBTQ+ family. EveryContinue reading “Join us for Our 2026 “The Bigger Picture: Queer-a-thon’ Celebration”

In a year in which LGBTQ+ youth were treated like talking points in everyone else’s culture war, It Gets Better stayed focused on The Bigger Picture: making things better for LGBTQ+ youth. Scroll any headline and you’ll see what’s stacked against LGBTQ+ youth. Scroll this page and you’ll see what they’re building anyway. From classroomsContinue reading “It Gets Better 2025 Impact Report”

Nashan wrote this during our art-ivism workshop, where we taught youth how art can be used as activism and as a way to advocate for themselves and their communities!

Jay is a 15-year-old transgender, Indian-American activist from the Bay Area, California and a member of the Fall/Winter 2025 class of It Gets Better’s Youth Voices ambassadors. I didn’t start running because I wanted medals. I started running because I wanted to feel like I belonged somewhere. When I first joined cross country, I didn’tContinue reading “Just Another Runner on the Team”

Conversas Que Inspiram (Conversations That Inspire), the groundbreaking series from It Gets Better Brasil, has been nominated for the Prisma Queer Award for its second season at the 49th São Paulo International Film Festival, one of the most prestigious cinema events in the world.

By Ariella Assouline (she/her)Senior Manager of Programs for It Gets Better As someone who works every day with LGBTQ+ youth, educators, and families, I’ve seen firsthand how important it is for young people to have tools that support their mental health on their own terms. That’s why It Gets Better first launched imi.guide, a free,Continue reading “Meet GLO: A Bright New Way for LGBTQ+ Youth to Care for Their Mental Health”

As part of our #Mis15 campaign for Hispanic Heritage Month, Youth Voices alumnus Kiki talks about envisioning a better tomorrow for Latine LGBTQ+ youth everywhere.

By Raelee Sweet, Assistant Manager of Education for It Gets Better Next Saturday is National Coming Out Day, a day to celebrate self-acceptance and finding supportive communities where you can be your authentic self. This annual holiday honors the anniversary of the 1987 National March on Washington for LGBTQ+ rights. National Coming Out Day means aContinue reading “Bring National Coming Out Day Into the Classroom”

For LGBTQ+ young people, the journey to adulthood can feel like stepping into the world without a roadmap. Many of us are navigating identity, community, and resilience all at once—and when you add money into the mix, things can get overwhelming fast. Studies show that LGBTQ+ youth face higher rates of financial stress and oftenContinue reading “Financial Pride: Building Confidence Through Money”

This year we’re celebrating 15 years of It Gets Better, an anniversary that invites us to reflect on what it means to grow up, to embrace our identities, and to celebrate our stories in community. For many of us in Latin America, a quinceañera is a symbolic milestone: a tradition full of social and genderedContinue reading “#Mis15 Spotlight: CJ García”

From rural Alaska to Miami, Florida, these are the grant projects making waves for LGBTQ+ youth in 2025.