Wear it Purple Day 2025: Bold Voices, Bright Futures

Every year, on the last Friday of August, schools, workplaces, and communities across Australia celebrate Wear it Purple Day. While pulling on your favourite purple t-shirt or beanie may seem like a small gesture, it sends a signal to LGBTQIA+ young people that they are celebrated, respected, and have the right to be proud of who they are.

What is Wear it Purple Day?

Wear it Purple Day was created in 2010 by a group of young Australians who wanted to respond to the impact of bullying, discrimination, and rejection on LGBTQIA+ teens. Fed up with the statistics of mental ill health, isolation, homelessness and suicide, they wanted to send a simple but powerful message: there are people who care, and life is worth living. Over the last fifteen years, Wear it Purple has become a nationwide event and a reminder to show support, start important conversations, and to make inclusion visible.

Why does Wear it Purple Day matter?

For many young LGBTQIA+ people, navigating their identity growing up is a time of stigma, misunderstanding, and hostility. These experiences have a range of significant impacts, including on mental health.

LGBTQIA+ youth face greater levels of bullying, rejection, and discrimination than their peers, factors consistently shown to contribute to anxiety, depression, and self-harm. These experiences unfold both in-person and, increasingly, online. A study analysing Instagram direct messages from both LGBTQIA+ and heterosexual adolescents revealed that queer youth experienced significantly more high-risk online interactions and that online harassment amplified risks of self-harm and injury (Tanni et al., 2024).

In the face of hostility, affirming environments play a vital role in supporting wellbeing. When LGBTQIA+ young people perceive their schools or workplaces as affirming of their sexual and gender identity, they report lower psychological distress and higher happiness (Amos et al., 2023). Similarly, families and, in particular, parental relationships, play an important protective role in supporting mental wellbeing (Wilson et al., 2016)

That’s why Wear it Purple Day matters. It may seem like a small gesture, just a splash of colour, but it’s a visible way to create an environment of acceptance and safety.

What you can do?

Taking part in Wear it Purple Day can look different for everyone. For some, it might be as simple as wearing a purple shirt or scarf. For others, it could mean starting conversations with friends, family, or colleagues about why the day matters, or reaching out to the young people in their lives. It might also involve creating spaces that feel inclusive and safe, whether that’s by challenging harmful language when it comes up, listening to LGBTQIA+ voices, or ensuring that stories of queer and trans people are heard and valued.

Wear it Purple Day offers helpful resources for those looking to take action, whether you’re a parent, planning an event at your workplace or school, or looking for ways to show your allyship. Whatever you choose to do, putting on purple is more than just a colour choice, it’s an opportunity to send a message of acceptance and belonging during a time when these signals can mean a lot.

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