Given that this is such an interactive movement, we thought it would be a good idea to let you know a little bit about who we are and why we felt the need to spread the message Kind Campaign represents.
Lauren Parsekian:
Hello! My name is Lauren Parsekian, and I am so happy that you are here checking out what Kind Campaign is all about! I grew up in the city of Laguna Niguel, within Orange County California but I currently reside in Los Angeles!
The way girls treat each other has had a lot of significance to my life and who I am today. Finding a way to stop girl-against-girl "crime" from happening is something that has been on my heart for as long as I can remember. Becoming a filmmaker, an author, a public speaker, a teacher…these are all careers I have thought about with one main goal: to create an outlet and awareness about the emotional, verbal and physical abuse within female relationships.
For me, the hardest time was middle school. It’s a funny thing to think about, because ten years later, I can still vividly recall every terrible memory from that time of my life. If I were to get into every detail of what happened to me in middle school, I would take forever. However, I will say that to this day it remains the hardest period of my entire life.
I guess you could say that I was one of the “popular girls” when I first started middle school. That is, until a couple of my best “friends” decided I wasn’t going to be “one of them” anymore. Throughout seventh and eighth grade I was tortured. I became scared to go to school, for the fear of what new tortuous experience they would put me through. My grades started to drop, I was scared to answer the phone, and finding places to hide on campus became a daily routine. Through this time I battled depression and thought about suicide frequently. I remember feeling worthless, ugly, stupid, and more than anything else, I felt like my world was over. I know first hand how much it hurts to be called names, to be threatened and to feel like you are all alone. Lucky for me, there was ONE girl throughout the whole middle school experience that stood by my side, even though she had to sacrifice her seat at the “cool” lunch table, and became hated as well...she is still one of my best friends today.
Even high school and college have shown that this issue still prevails. As you grow, you assume that the cattiness and cruelty will fade away. The reality is however, that although the “mean girl” thing seems to get better over time, it still happens no matter how old you are, and no matter how "past it" we girls act like we are.
I am not excluded from the reason this is happening…none of us are. Although I have been a victim, that doesn’t mean that I too haven’t contributed to the vicious cycle. We have ALL said or done mean things to other girls, whether it be to her face or behind her back. We are in this TOGETHER and it is TOGETHER that we can make it stop.
Ever since my experience in middle school, I have known that I wanted to do something to help with this very important issue. Being a film student at Pepperdine opened my eyes to the world of documentary film and the enormous good documentaries can do. Documentaries are the perfect balance between being involved in the creative process of making a film, and sending a message to help people. After luckily being able to intern with Tom Shadyac on a documentary during my junior year at Pepperdine, I realized that documentary film is exactly the direction I wanted to go. That summer I was able to travel to MountainFilm documentary film festival, and it was there that everything came together. I was literally sitting in a grass field, looking at my surroundings (cliché I know), and it all clicked: why not make a documentary about the way girls treat each other and how it affects us? After formulating the idea of making the documentary and creating a movement, I immediately saw the positive reaction and the need for something like this. I decided I would not stop until a “kinder” world was created among females. I am tired of the backstabbing, I am tired of seeing “chick-fights” posted on the internet, I am tired of hearing about female celebrity feuds, and I am tired of hearing about girls hurting themselves over this issue. It has to stop.
Starting Kind Campaign has filled me with more joy than I could have ever imagined, and being able to do with one of my best friends, Molly Stroud, has been the icing on the cake. Seeing the hope that Kind Campaign's message has already instilled within the hearts of so many females is so gratifying. I hope that Kind Campaign touches everyone who encounters it. This is about FEMALES being kind to each other, YES. However, it becomes so much more than that when you look at the big picture. We should ALL be Kinder…females and males. In order to make the world a better place we must change ourselves as individuals and it starts with being KIND.
I truly hope that the message of Kind Campaign speaks to you, and that you know how special you are. I know it’s extremely hard to be a girl. It’s hard for ALL of us. However, I have confidence that through Kind Campaign, we will all come together to create a community and an awareness that will change this problem.