Stacey Abrams, Christina Lauren collaborates to raise awareness of child marriage (exclusively)

The romance society gathers to raise awareness of a major global issue: child marriage.

Promise for girlsa non -profit organization founded by Princess Mabel van Oranje or Orange-NasauHas a new campaign this Valentine’s Day. Collaboration with writers and former state representative in Georgia Stacey abramsTogether with a team of bookstores, publishers and best -selling romance writers, Every girl deserves a happy after The campaign will raise money for VOW, which is devoted to community -based efforts to eradicate child marriage, according to their website.

Van Oranje founded VOW for girls after she learned about the upcoming effects of child marriage. Per UnicefOne in five young women, ages 20 to 24, will get married before they turn 18, as opposed to one of 30 young men. In 2022, 12 million girls married in children marriage.

“It is not only a great abuse of human rights, but it also robs girls in most cases of their education,” says Van Oranje. “They get pregnant before they are physically ready to have children. They are more likely to become victims of violence, they are less likely to lift their families out of poverty at an older age. When I came across that question, I just couldn’t sit still and do nothing. ”

Van Oranje and Abrams began collaboration if every girl deserves a happily after talking on a panel together in Rwanda. Abrams, himself the author of several romance novels under the pen name Selena Montgomery, says that The Vow For Girls campaign joins her love for the genre with her passion for social justice.

“Romance was one of the most effective ways to tell the stories I wanted to tell about societies and questions that people did not think they needed to know about or knew they didn’t know about,” Abrams says. “It is one of the most perfect ways to introduce conversation, to unite an entire society.”

It is therefore, in addition to their collaboration with 15 bookstores that donate parts of their sales to the campaign, also collaborates with 90 romance writers, including Carley fortuneThe Ali Hazelwood and Christina Laurento help spread the word.

“Being able to do this with writers and publishers who understand how romance can literally change lives, for me, is a kind of perfect marriage – word games intended,” says Abrams.

“One of the greatest joy we have is to get in touch with our readers. It is really amazing to see how they are rooting for our characters and the happy all the time, ”adds Lauren Billings, half of the writing team behind Christina Lauren. “(We) just hope to be able to use that connection with our readers to spread awareness and invite our followers to meaningfully lift these millions of girls who desperately need our help to actualize their future.”

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Connecting Vow’s mission to the romance genre was also crucial. The genre generates over $ 1 billion each year, according to a statement shared with people, and many books are focused on stories about female empowerment.

“Our livelihood, our reader society, is women and girls,” says Christina Hobbs, the other half of Christina Lauren. “Romance is in itself political in that way, and the genre is based on empowerment and choices and creates female characters that find joy and have resilience and find their own agency.”

“It works perfectly because this campaign has a simple belief that every girl deserves to be the main character in her own story,” she adds. “They must be given power with the freedom to choose the life they want to lead, to find their way, be free from pressure from forced marriage or whatever else is coming.”

And besides the support from bookstores and writers, Van Oranje also notes the importance of the real girls whose lives can change because of every girl deserves a happy ever after the assignment.

“I hope through this campaign, we will raise awareness and ability of VOW for girls to mobilize funding in a way we could never have done without Stacey’s brilliant idea and without the fantastic registration from people like Christina and Lauren, says Van Oranje .

“Your geography, the place where you were born, should not define your fate in life,” she adds. “We all deserve equal opportunities. That is what continues to drive me, and why I am so incredibly excited that we build this fantastic campaign to make sure that all these girls can have (a) happy all the time. “

For more information about each girl deserves a happily constantly after campaign, visit their Website.