5 Reasons to #WearOrange in Support of NIAW
This year, National Infertility Awareness Week (NIAW) is April 24 to April 30, and one of the most prominent yet simple ways you can show your support is to #WearOrange. RESOLVE: The National Infertility Association highlights their orange clothing campaign to have as many people as possible wear the bright color on April 27 as an important way to demonstrate fertility advocacy. An orange shirt, dress, headband, hat, sunglasses, shoes, or purse – you can celebrate NIAW as much or as subtly as you’d like. If you’re wondering how wearing orange helps the fertility community, here are five ways.
1) Wearing Orange Helps People Start Conversations
Unless you wear orange regularly, an abrupt sartorial change could start a conversation with the people you see daily. Your colleagues, family members, or friends may inquire about the new shift in your wardrobe and ask why you’re now rocking some orange outerwear or accessories. This is an ideal opportunity to talk about fertility awareness and why it’s so important to support the fertility community. It can create an elucidating moment that educates those who are not aware of the struggles so many face when trying to grow their families.
2) It’s an Opportunity to Get Social
If you love using social media to draw attention to important issues, the #WearOrange campaign is a perfect opportunity to strike a pose and take a selfie in your orange attire. Use NIAW hashtags such as #NIAW, #RESOLVE, #WearOrange, #FertilityAwareness, #Infertility, and #LGBTQFamilies for maximum impact. Sharing your support on social media helps further broaden the range of your activism. There are probably many people on your friend list and beyond who could see your post. Such posts have the power to strike a chord and make people feel less alone while also encouraging others to participate and post their own support.
3) It Demonstrates the Impact of Micro-Activism
Sometimes, promoting fertility awareness takes the form of so-called big moves like organizing fundraisers or petitioning for changes to legislation. Sometimes, activism operates on a smaller, more micro level, like wearing orange once a year. While it may seem like such small moments of activism aren’t much, they can and do add up.
4) It Can Mean a Great Deal to You
If you’ve been on or are on your own fertility journey, you know firsthand how lonely the process can be. Even with support from family and friends, you and your partner (if applicable) are the ones who have to contend with the day-to-day challenges the fertility journey brings. It’s a massive mental, emotional, and physical commitment for so many people. Taking a day to wear orange, whether or not you make it known as to why you are doing so, is a little message of support for yourself and everyone else in the community to say that you are not alone and that your journey matters.
5) It Can Celebrate Moments of Success and Honor Moments of Struggle
Growing your family through fertility care and/or third-party reproduction can have the highest of highs, and, unfortunately, some deep lows. Wherever you are on your journey, wearing orange on April 27 can give you a boost of optimism, or at the very least a comforting nod to your own path.
