This petition is about raising awareness for OCD; the first step in attempting to change the stigma created through Social Media. YouTube celebrities and Social Media moguls have a great influence over their audience and their fans, and this voice could be used to raise awareness of OCD rather than contribute to the stigma of OCD being funny or not serious. Whilst you may not find this OCD Girl shirt offensive it does contribute to the stigma and it does not encourage a comfortable and safe environment for people living with OCD.

Many people, possibly even the creator of this tshirt may not know about or understand the seriousness of the Mental Illness OCD. After all there are so many Obsessive c-word Disorder memes and merchandise online what difference does one more make? Well, we need to start somewhere. Miranda Sings is a YouTube character played by Colleen Evans/Ballinger. She has over 5 million subscribers on her Miranda Sings channel, over 3 million on her personal channel and 2 million followers on her Instagram. She has a big influence over her fans and audience, and this voice could be used to spread positive awareness of OCD.

Below is the open letter and email sent out to Colleen to encourage her to take this tshirt off of her Spreadshirt store. Spreadshirt is the platform on which Colleen's shirts are created and sold to her fans. Spreadshirt also has an influence over their customers so I am reaching out to them too. So far there has been no acknowledgement of this letter and so this petition is another attempt to bring attention to it, to the parties involved. It would be a bonus if after taking this shirt off of sale that the parties involved use this as a way to raise awareness of OCD as well. Positive awareness encourages those people living with OCD to come out to their friends, family or doctor and to seek help without fear of judgement or ridicul. Stigmas keep people with OCD feeling ashamed and alone and dealing with this on their own.

Please read the letter and sign the petition. It appears that OCD is a small community of people when in fact secretly over 2% of the population is living with OCD every second of every day. Be a voice for the people who do not have a voice themselves.

Dear Miranda/Colleen/Management.

My name is Jessica, and I am writing to you today in relation to your Spreadshirt Merchadise OCD Girl aka Obsessive Colleen Disorder.

As a person that has lived with severe OCD for over 14 years and as a leader in OCD Support and Awareness, I feel the need to bring the seriousness of OCD to your attention. I understand that you are a big YouTuber and that you may not have time to answer all emails, however it is because you have such an influence on your viewers that I feel it is necessary that you understand that OCD is not a joke and that you can use that influence to spread awareness for the mental illness.

OCD is Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. There are 2 parts to OCD the obsessions and the compulsions. An obsession is any intrusive, unwanted or inappropriate thought that comes back repeatedly and is hard to stop thinking about. Common obsessions are cleanliness, symmetry or religion. A compulsion is an activity that you have to complete to feel like things are going to be alright. You might feel like you have to do things in a certain order, clean things repeatedly, count things, or hoard a certain type of object (meaning you collect and keep specific objects with little or no value or purpose). OCD is a debilitating illness, preventing people from having close friendships and relationships, being able to maintain employment and being able to live a normal life.

Through OCD Awareness we aim to put a stop to joking merchandise as they provide viewers with a jaded idea of what the mental illness actually is. I put it to you this way; would you make a t-shirt saying 'Miranda likes Cancer'? I assume you probably wouldn't because it would be offensive and hurt a lot of people that have been touched by cancer in their lives. Your OCD Girl t-shirt has that effect on people living with OCD and those who love them.

I would like to formally ask you to take this t-shirt off of your Spreadshirt store and perhaps try to learn about OCD and spread that knowledge to your fan base.

Thank you for your time.
Regards,
Jessica