Article featured in Avatar - Volume 4, Issue 2 (August 2010). Dizzy Feet Foundation By Katrina (AppleTini) Less than a year ago, So You Think You Can Dance producer Nigel Lythgoe shocked viewers around the world with an exciting piece of news: an organization co-founded by Lythgoe, producer Adam Shankman, judge of Dancing With the Stars, Carrie Ann Inaba, and actress Katie Holmes. This organization, of course, was not just randomly announced on So You Think You Can Dance for no reason....

Article featured in Avatar - Volume 3, Issue 4 (October 2009). To Write Love on Her Arms by Katrina October's Cause of the Month is To Write Love on Her Arms, another cause close to the hearts of the large majority of TeenHelp users. As a group of young people, many of whom have struggled with self harm and addiction ourselves, we are truly able to connect with such a modern, accepting movement of love: "You were created to love and be loved. You were meant to live life in...

Article featured in Avatar - Volume 3, Issue 10 (April 2010). Locks of Love By Katrina We've all seen our friends have their curly, golden long hair chopped off at some point before. Sometimes, we hear them mention that they're donating it to "Locks of Love." Do you know what Locks of Love is really all about, though? While this organization isn't our typical monthly cause, we wanted to share just a snippet of the great things Locks of Love accomplishes each and every day. Locks of...
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Article featured in Avatar - Volume 3, Issue 1 (July 2009). She Dances by Katrina With the release of volume three, Avatar will now contain a monthly, noteworthy cause that the editors feel is sometimes unrecognized, unknown, but utterly unique. We hope "Cause of the Month" will raise awareness for these great causes, the purpose of these movements, and the visions that started them all. "Every girl deserves to dream. Every girl deserves hope. Every girl deserves to love and to be...

Article featured in Avatar - Volume 3, Issue 12 (June 2010). Faceless International by Katrina No matter who you are, you are blessed with talents that you sometimes don't even know about. This month, I challenge you to look past who you are, on the outside. I challenge you to look within, even if it's just a little bit. Try to find your own talents and your own callings, and think creatively about how you can make a difference! One of my favorite organizations, Faceless International,...

Article featured in Avatar - Volume 3, Issue 9 (March 2010). Rosa Loves By Katrina "We are everyday people aware of a need in our community. We realize that we are capable of performing tangible acts of service that will meet individual and immediate needs in order to affect wide scale encouragement. Rosa Loves is an example, an inspiration, and will serve as a possible backbone to many more grassroots "love projects" around the world." Rosa Loves takes a different approach than...
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Article featured in Avatar - Volume 3, Issue 3 (September 2009). Operation Beautiful by Katrina This cause of the month, Operation Beautiful, has become close to the hearts of many TeenHelpers since it became popular around the forums over the past few weeks. Operation Beautiful began when a twenty-five year old blogger, Caitlin, became fed up with what is referred to as "Fat Talk." Fat Talk is basically when women say or think negative things about their bodies. Fat Talk, and the...

Article featured in Avatar - Volume 4, Issue 1 (July 2010). Vitamin Angels By Katrina How many times have you heard Mom or Dad say, "Alright, be sure to take your vitamins!" More than you can count? Yeah, me too. They don't say it for no reason, though. Specific vitamins are vital for immune systems; without them, we wouldn't be able to fight off infections and would always be sick. Vitamin Angels understands the importance of vitamins to children and infants: "Our mission is to...

Article featured in Avatar - Volume 3, Issue 7 (January 2010). The March of Dimes By Katrina January, the start of the new year, is Birth Defects month. In lieu of this, we have chosen The March of Dimes as our January Cause of the Month. The March of Dimes, an organization that has made many notable accomplishments since it's founding, fights to prevent and raise awareness about three main things: birth defects, premature births, and infant immortality. The March of Dimes actually began...
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Article featured in Avatar - Volume 3, Issue 8 (February 2010). Médecins Sans Frontières By Jessie (Asylum) Doctors Without Borders, known internationally as Médecins Sans Frontières, or MSF, is a non-governmental medical humanitarian organization. MSF was created in 1971 by a group of French doctors with the belief that all people have a right to medical care and that this right supersedes race, religion or political affiliation. "MSF sets out to alleviate human suffering, to protect...
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Article featured in Avatar - Volume 3, Issue 11 (May 2010). Special Olympics By Katrina Many of us see Special Olympics related programs at our schools or places of employment. In theory, it's great, but in practice, it's far more inspiring than even describable! Think about it, the Special Olympics is giving athletic opportunities to individuals who would not have the same opportunities with any other organization. What's more important than the athletic opportunities given to these...

Article featured in Avatar - Volume 3, Issue 6 (December 2009). Angel Tree by Katrina Twenty-seven years ago, Mary Kay Beard, who was on America's Most Wanted at the time and serving a 180-year sentence at the Julia Tutwiler Prison for Women in Alabama had a change of heart near Christmas time as she served her sentence. Outsiders would bring the inmates small soaps and toiletries, and rather than keeping these for personal use, many of the inmates wrapped them up as gifts for their...

Article featured in Avatar - Volume 3, Issue 10 (April 2010). 10 Points of Light By Katrina You may remember Take Back the Night's Avatar debut when it was featured as Cause of the Month in the November 2009 edition. In conjunction with Take Back the Night's first ever nationwide event, 10 Points of Light, we wanted to remind our Cause of the Month readers of the great work this foundation is doing each and every day, and to encourage participation in this event! On April 29, 2010,...

Spread the Word to End the Word By Britt (Aspire.) What is an Intellectual Disability? An intellectual disability develops before the age of eighteen, and is defined as limitations in both intellectual functioning and adapting to everyday life. Typically someone with an intellectual disability has an intelligence quotient (IQ) of 70 or below, which is tested by using intelligence tests such as the Stanford-Binet and Wechsler Scales. Along with a low IQ, an individual will typically have...

Article featured in Avatar - Volume 3, Issue 5 (November 2009). Take Back the Night by Katrina November's Cause of the Month, Take Back the Night, got it's start in the late '70s as victims, but more importantly, survivors, of sexual abuse got together with their friends and family to raise awareness about the pressing issue. Earlier on (or 'In the beginning' or 'At its start'), the events focused mainly on different local unsafe areas and how to make them safer. Throughout the 70s,...