General · EdgepediaOctober 3, 20267 min read

It Gets Better Project

The It Gets Better Project is an internet-based campaign and nonprofit organization that collects video messages of hope from LGBTQ+ adults and allies for young LGBTQ+ people, founded in September 2010 by the sex advice columnist Dan Savage and his partner Terry Miller in response to a series of suicides among bullied LGBTQ+ youth¹. Its central message is that, however difficult adolescence may be, life can improve in adulthood¹. The organization describes itself as the world's largest storytelling effort to uplift and empower LGBTQ+ youth¹.

Key fact	Detail
Founded	September 2010, by Dan Savage and Terry Miller with a video posted to YouTube¹
Trigger	A rash of suicides among bullied LGBTQ+ youth, including 15-year-old Billy Lucas²
Scale	More than 70,000 people have shared personal stories; by 2013 over 50,000 video testimonials were online, with affiliates in nearly a dozen countries¹^•³
Notable contributors	Kelly Clarkson, Ellen DeGeneres, Laverne Cox, Neil Patrick Harris, and presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden¹
Book	It Gets Better: Coming Out, Overcoming Bullying, and Creating a Life Worth Living (2011), a New York Times bestseller collecting essays from celebrities and non-celebrities⁴^•⁵
Television	An hour-long special broadcast by MTV and Logo in February 2012, nominated for an Emmy Award⁶
Recent programs	Since 2022, $1.6 million invested in 172 youth-led projects across 48 states, D.C., and 9 Canadian provinces; the digital mental health tool imi has supported 205,000 people since 2022⁷

Origin

In September 2010, Savage and Miller heard about a string of suicides among gay teenagers who had been bullied at school, among them Billy Lucas, a 15-year-old². Other teens who died that fall included Seth Walsh, 13⁸. Savage wrote that many LGBT youth could not picture what their lives might be like as openly gay adults, because visible LGBT adults tend to leave their home communities for cities such as New York, San Francisco, and Los Angeles; the internet, he argued, could supply the missing role models⁹^•³.

The two men recorded an eight-minute video, "It Gets Better: Dan and Terry," in which they described the bullying they had endured as adolescents and the lives they had built as adults². Miller described being thrown against walls, lockers, and windows at his school in Spokane, Washington; Savage described attending Catholic schools with no openly gay people, where he was picked on²^•¹⁰. They uploaded it to a YouTube channel created for the purpose and invited other LGBTQ+ adults to contribute similar messages⁹.

Rapid growth. Within a week so many people had contributed their own videos that Savage could not host them all; YouTube limits regular accounts to 650 uploads, and the company expanded the project's limit so it could host 5,000 videos². By March 2011 the campaign had gathered more than 10,000 user-created videos generating over 30 million pageviews⁴. By 2013, more than 50,000 video testimonials had been posted and the campaign had gone global, with affiliates in nearly a dozen countries³. Contributors ranged from everyday people to celebrities such as Kelly Clarkson, Adam Lambert, Ellen DeGeneres, Laverne Cox, and Neil Patrick Harris, and to presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden¹.

Expansion beyond video

Savage and Miller collected stories and essays from the campaign into the 2011 book It Gets Better: Coming Out, Overcoming Bullying, and Creating a Life Worth Living, which they hoped would be on the shelves of every high school in the country⁴^•⁵. In February 2012, an hour-long It Gets Better special aired on MTV and Logo, and it earned an Emmy nomination in the Outstanding Children's Nonfiction, Reality or Reality-Competition program category.⁶ A Google Chrome television advertisement featured the campaign's story⁶.

The organization later moved from video storytelling toward direct programming. Its Changemakers program funds youth-led service projects for LGBTQ+ people aged 13 to 18; since 2022 it has invested $1.6 million in 172 projects across 48 states, D.C., and 9 Canadian provinces, including queer proms, pride events, media projects, and gender-affirming closets⁷^•¹¹. Its digital mental health resource imi, which gives LGBTQ+ youth a space to explore identity and build resilience, has supported 205,000 people since 2022⁷. Other programs include Youth Voices and EduGuides¹².

Evidence on effects

A double-blind randomized controlled trial published in 2022, the first experimental study of the videos, assigned 483 LGBTQ+ youth aged 14 to 22 in Austria and German-language online settings to watch It Gets Better Project videos or control videos, and measured suicidal ideation, help-seeking intentions, hopelessness, and mood at baseline, after exposure, and at four-week follow-up¹³. There was no overall effect on suicidal ideation. Nonbinary and transgender participants showed a small improvement relative to controls, and the intervention group improved in help-seeking intentions. An indirect effect on suicidal ideation ran through the degree to which viewers identified with the video's protagonist¹³. The authors concluded that video narratives featuring coping may have some potential to decrease suicidal ideation and encourage help-seeking among youth who identify with the videos, but that effects are small and short-lived¹³.

Qualitative research has found both value and limits. In focus groups, 19 LGBQ+ adolescents and young adults and 9 suicide-prevention experts judged the videos helpful in promoting hope and supportive of coming-out and identity-building processes, while criticizing a perceived lack of diversity in the sexual identities portrayed and shallowness in the portrayal of suicidal ideation¹⁴. A study of 19 LGBTQ+ youth, published in 2014 by Shelley L. Craig, Lauren McInroy, Ramona Alaggia, and Lance T. McCready of the University of Toronto's Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work, found participants saw the project as a positive start that drew attention to LGBTQ+ youth vulnerability, but wanted it to provide tangible resources to youth at risk of suicide rather than only pointing toward a better future¹⁵.

Criticism

Scholars have questioned the campaign's framing. A 2014 rhetorical analysis of the 20 most popular video submissions by Erica Ciszek found that the narratives perpetuated a dominant "Cinderella myth" in which LGBTQ+ youth are framed as in need of saving and follow a fairy-tale trajectory¹⁶. Oliver L. Haimson, a researcher at the University of Michigan, wrote in 2020 that the "getting better" narrative places the burden of improving one's emotional state on vulnerable LGBTQ+ youth rather than addressing systemic oppression, and emphasizes waiting for time to pass rather than political action; an IGB video arguing that it does not get better was punished by "dislikes" on YouTube¹⁷. A 2024 review noted that two studies a decade apart had highlighted the campaign's passive, non-intersectional messaging without documented program modification¹⁸.

The project has also drawn political opposition. In 2015 Frito-Lay partnered with the organization on a limited-edition Rainbow Doritos product, donating to the project for donations of $10 or more; former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee urged the company to sever ties, citing Dan Savage's history of comments critical of Christianity, and called for a boycott of Frito-Lay snacks¹⁹. By that time Savage was no longer actively affiliated with the organization's foundation, though he remained its best-known figure¹⁹.

References

Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Series and fictional screen worlds › Unscripted, reality, and web-native series › Web-native and streaming-original series › LGBT-related web series

Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 21, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026

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