Demi Lovato

Demi Lovato

          Hello, this is IGL and this post is about Demi Lovato. Demi Lovato is a singer and actress, and also, a philanthropist. Demi Lovato is a celebrity that has struggled through many issues as a child and adolescent, including cutting, eating disorders, bipolar, substance abuse, and bullying. Demi has been bullied as a child, but during middle school, the bullying became too much and she pulled out of public school to be homeschooled. She had a rocky relationship with her self-esteem issues and her eating disorders. At a young age, she began binge eating, and soon, throwing herself up because of her bullies. She also began to cut herself to harm herself.

          She always wanted to become a singer/actress, so she landed a role on Disney Channel to a short series called As the Bell Rings. People were impressed by Lovato’s talent and Disney soon gave her the roles in Camp Rock along with the Jonas Brothers, the sequel, and her own show, Sonny with a Chance.

          Lovato’s first account of substance abuse was around the age of 12. She got into a car accident and was prescribed painkillers. She would sneak them from her mother’s purse and consume them, enjoying the feelings of being taken away of her conscious. Through her teen years, she began to party a lot and use drugs and alcohol. After her relationship with Joe Jonas broke, whom she dated for about two months, she started to frequently party. When one of her own friends threatened to tell, she punched her and had a nervous breakdown.

          Her family and friends suggested for her to go to rehab, where she was diagnosed with bipolar disorder. After exiting rehab, she got better, and stopped cutting, purging, and overcame her past experiences. However, she relapsed, and continued her substance abuse with cocaine and alcohol. But after one day of throwing up in the limo, she decided to turn her life around and stay sober. She lived in a sober living house for quite a time, and now advocates against glamorizing intoxicants.

          She released her hit single “Skyscraper” in 2011 and published a daily meditation book called Stay Strong: 365 Days a Year to positively treat a day better. She advocates against drug and alcohol abuse, reckless partying, self harm, and hate. She tells people that no matter how they feel, they are beautiful. She has inspired people to tell their story after she dared to tell hers, and helped many souls in getting better from their own issues.

          Lovato is also an advocate for LGBT rights, and was crowned the grand marshal for Los Angeles’s Gay Pride Parade in 2014. She has publicly announced her love for the LGBT community and how even though she was Christian, she knew that Jesus loved everyone and treated them equally. Today, Demi Lovato has been an inspiration to people everywhere: children, teenagers, and adults. She has been an incredible role model to people all around the world.

Idea+Gift=Love IGL

Stop Animal Abuse

Stop Animal Abuse

         

          Hello, this is IGL and this post is about animal abuse. IGL has contributed a lot on animal abuse. There are also other posts about animal abuse including animal fighting, the animal shelter, farm animals, wildlife, and more.

          Animal abuse is so cruel and inhumane. The reasons are just so unexplainable. Sometimes people take their anger out on someone else (just like bullying, domestic violence, rape, women violence, and child abuse—which are also NOT okay). Sadly, people know that animals are helpless against a person’s power.

          Another reason is that a person just doesn’t realize how hard it is to take care of animal. Sometimes someone buys a puppy from the pet store (which is usually from the puppy mill, but that’s a whole different story). But that person doesn’t realize that an animal needs a lot of care. But they thought that they need to be brushed, washed, watered, and fed. So they just leave the animal there for a few days without any care.

          You can always help stop animal abuse. You could:

1. When you don’t want an animal anymore, talk to your vet/animal expert or take it to a no-kill animal shelter. Both of those options are better than abandoning it without any food, water, and shelter.
2. When you buy a pet, know what it needs. Give your pet the thinks it needs including food, water, and shelter.
3. If you suspect animal abuse is going on, call the animal control.
4. Donate to organizations that help stop animal abuse. A good organization for helping abused dogs is Rolda.

http://rolda.org/Ways-to-Help/help-dogs-with-us.html

Another good organization is ASPCA.

http://www.aspca.org/

Lastly, the IS foundation helps the circus animals.

http://www.isfoundation.com/news/kids/stop-circus-animal-abuse

5. Spread the word. You could write a letter to the newspaper or just tell some people you know.

Help stop animal abuse!

-Idea+Gift=Love IGL

Stop Eating disorders!

Stop Eating Disorders

          Hello, this is IGL and our new project is eating disorders. Eating disorders are when someone abstains from food to make their body thinner. Sometimes people purge and skip meals. Most of the time people with eating disorders are young adults or teenagers.

          Eating disorders could affect a lot of people. Sometimes when someone is bullied, they are called fat and overweight. Because of that, the person purges themselves to look better. Or it could be because someone is just a “queen bee” and keeps their eating disorder as something to look better in their revealing clothing. Or maybe it’s because their friends are all skinny and inspire that person to contain an eating disorder. Either way, it’s not a good thing.

          Another BIG reason why most people have eating disorders is because of the media. Yes, the media. The media nowadays include super skinny models, movie stars, ettica. In other words size 1 ½ dresses and outfits. Still, there are some healthy and normal-weighted people in TV shows and celebrities that go against bulimia, but most people are still super thin. Our member, Kristine, one day was watching TV shows on her computer. Then, when she came across a clip from the Disney Channel TV show “So Random” (the individual show, not the one in Sonny with a Chance) she was super shocked of what she saw. It was the episode when the male model came to his girlfriend’s house. They were talking about how the male model ate only one full meal a week, which is bad. And the model said that his agent told him that if he wanted to get the jobs (being famous) he couldn't eat ANY carbs. This is so outraging! Now they were supporting eating disorders on children’s shows!

          Even if you skip breakfast so you could look like Ali Lohan, that’s still considered an eating disorder. If you have a minor eating disorder, consider visiting a therapist to get over it. But if it is a hardcore, serious eating disorder (like going without food for weeks or purging) go to a treatment facility if you can't overcome it when you try.


          NEDA is an organization that helps young girls going through eating disorders. NEDA is a non profit organization that reaches out to people with their self-esteem issues. To help, you can plan a NEDA walk to raise money and spread awareness to eating disorders. If you don't want to plan a walk, then just donate! NEDA has a program in which you can donate a car so they can auction it off. Besides, they will take care of all expenses for sending the car over.

          No matter what happened in the past, accept who you are. How you look like on the outside doesn't really matter to how you are in the inside. There are ways to discourage eating disorders .You could:

1.     If you have an eating disorder yourself, stop it. Don't let how your image looks like affect you. If it’s a minor case, try seeing a therapist or a doctor. If it’s serious, consider going to a treatment facility

2.    If you know someone who has an eating disorder, tell them to get some help.

3.    Spread the word. Write a letter to the newspaper, tell someone about it, or just encourage people to stop eating disorders.

4.    If you or someone you know with an eating disorder is afraid of getting overweight or obese, skipping meals is not the answer. Food has healthy nutrition that helps you, not goes against you. However, if you don't want to get too overweight, avoid fatty food like hamburgers, French fries, hot dogs, or fried chicken.

5. Support NEDA and maybe donate to the organization. 
    (  http://www.nationaleatingdisorders.org  )

So you see, eating disorders affect so many people in the world every day. Help stop eating disorders and make the world a healthier place.

-Idea+Gift=Love

Stop Poverty in India!

Stop Poverty in India!

          Hello, this is IGL. Our new topic is to stop poverty in India. Here’s a mini story to it.

          Once upon a time, one of our members, Sanjana, went to her home country India. She went to the slums of India to see the people. Sadly, children and people were all suffering. They lived in small shacks tidied together. She saw a girl and a baby drinking yellow and contaminated water out of a pipe. She also saw a boy working at the motel her age not going to school and getting the education he needed. The water system was dirty and had trash in it.

          The children beg for food and work nonstop. But you could give them some hope and happiness.

          You could help these poor people and give them some hope by:

1. You could donate some money
2. You could adopt and Indian orphan
3. Or you could go to India physically and help them with their labor!

Stop poverty in India!

-Idea+Gift=Love 

Help the stray cats!

Help the Stray Cats!

          Hello, this is IGL. We are here for our first project! This post could have been here longer before, but we had trouble with our blogger.

          So, this post is about helping the stray cats. Many stray cats are lost everywhere on this planet. They have no home and no trust to have. They're like hobos but smaller, more vulnerable, and no communicating interaction towards humans. And this post has a story that goes with.

          Once upon a time, three little kittens were abandoned by their mother. They came up on the doorstep of one of our member’s (Cristina) cousins. Cristina’s cousins found two grey kittens and one white kitten. They brought the white kitten in since the other two didn’t run inside. They fed them cat food and watered them every night outside.

          Soon, they adopted the white kitten. Her name was Ashley. The other two were Tina and Charlie. They loved each and every cat very much. One day, they decided to capture Tina and Charlie to bring to the humane society for TNR.

          TNR is a program for helping cats get neutered or spayed. People capture stray cats and bring it to the animal shelter for TNR. They neuter or spay them and clip one of their ear’s tips to indicate that they were brought for TNR. They release the cat back to where they were found since relocation is a dangerous act for wild or stray animals.

          Cristina’s cousins helped save a life, in fact, saved three lives. They adopted a stray cat, and brought two for TNR. YOU could save a life. If you find a stray cat, you could

1. Adopt the feral cat
2. Find some trusting and caring owners
3. Bring it to the humane society for either TNR or to bring it to the shelter.

Remember, every life counts.

Help the stray cats!

-Idea+Gift=Love