#say1thing

How often do you tell your best friend or someone you love, how much you value them and why?

The Bishop of Gloucester, the Right Revd Rachel Treweek has launched a week long social media campaign encouraging people to share one thing that they value in others, which is not about physical appearance.

#say1thing is part of the wider #liedentity campaign, which raises awareness of body image anxiety in young people and the pressures they face through social media to look a certain way.

Watch the campaign video here:

Bishop Rachel is sharing with young people the message that who you are, is more than how you look. She said, “It’s been amazing spending time with young people in schools as part of the #liedentity campaign. When they each tell me what they value most about someone they love or aspire to be like, it’s never about appearance.

“Yet what happens on social media is completely different. Young people face a barrage of insults about what they look like and they face huge anxiety about the pictures they post, hoping for likes and then often having to deal with terrible insults. We are living in a society where our value is being determined by what we look like, rather than who we are from the inside out.”

We are encouraging all people on social media to change this message by posting a picture of their friends or family and sharing one thing they value about that person with the hashtag #say1thing.

We are inviting you to join us during the week of Monday 16 July and post #say1thing. We also hope you will share this wider with your organisation, family and friends.

We visited Newent Community Secondary School which is supporting the #say1thing campaign and asked the students to tell us what they valued most about the people they love or aspire to be like. Watch our video to see what they said –