About Aja: But first a bit of a back story. Remember Aja was created in memory of Aja Chandler, an 11-year-old girl from Belle River, Ontario, who died in March of this year from playing the choking game. You can read more about her story in the Windsor Star and on rememberaja.org. Pam, the maker of Girly Bits created Remember Aja as a fundraiser to raise money to go to a fund in Aja's memory, money that will go to raising awareness about the choking game and for a youth soccer scholarship.
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| Girly Bits Remember Aja |
The Choking Game: Also called the fainting game, it involves intentionally cutting off one's oxygen supply in order to achieve a temporary high. The person faints for a brief moment then comes to. It's completely dangerous and can lead to moderate to severe brain damage, mental disability and even death. Kids will either tend to do it alone or will do it in groups. More can be learned here.
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| Girly Bits Remember Aja |
My own experience: When Pam released this polish, it made me think of my own experience with the choking game back when I was in high school, an experience that only happened once but it's something I never told my family. See, in high school, I was very motivated to achieve academically. I was on the honor roll, taking AP courses, thinking about college. But I was also a bit reckless, prone to going along with the crowd, you know, typically high school behavior.
I only played the choking game once, on a band trip, when I was about 15 or 16. It was a group of us and we were in our hotel when someone introduced the idea. For some reason (stupidity, hidden sadist tendencies?!) I did the choking job, while other people got a high from my actions. Stupid I know, I'm kinda regretting putting this out there. But sometimes even the smart, responsible kids do dumb things.
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| Girly Bits Remember Aja |
What's my point? My point is that if you have kids, or know people who have kids, you should talk to them about the choking game. Don't wait for "signs" to appear. There might not be any. In my case it was a one time deal, and luckily no one got hurt, but it could have gone horribly wrong. Even though I couldn't have gotten hurt, I could have hurt, or worse, killed someone accidentally, which would undoubtedly have effected me for the rest of my life.
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| Girly Bits Remember Aja |
Sometimes I wonder, can polish make a difference? In this case I think it does. Not only does it raise money for a good cause, it raises awareness about an important issue. I don't need to do a survey to know that there are a lot of moms in the nail polish community. So if you are one of those moms, please make a note either now, or when your kids get older, to talk to them about this.
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| Girly Bits Remember Aja |
About this polish: To raise money and awareness about this important issue, Pam created a warm-toned purple linear holo. It also has a gorgeous pink shimmer that catches the eye at times. To give you some information about the polish, the holo effect is what I would call a medium holo effect - it's not in-your-face holo, but it's very noticeable in the sun. The formula is perfect and it goes on very smooth and is self-leveling. I used three coats here.
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| Girly Bits Remember Aja |
My apologies for rambling on, but sometimes things are important to me and I want to write about them. Don't forget to visit rememberaja.org to educate yourself about the hazards of this "game".
What do you think of this polish? And how do you feel about polishes for a cause?
Girly Bits polishes are available from their website, there you'll also find a list of distributors for other places to buy Girly Bits. Follow Girly Bits Cosmetics on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter for updates and new releases.
*Products in this post provided for review, all opinions are my own. See my disclosure policy for more detail.*
I admire you so much and I think it shows incredible strength and courage for you to stand up and share your story like this. I think it really helps people to realize just how real it is.
ReplyDeleteI've never actually known or heard of people in my area to "play" this "game," but I have seen it a lot in the news and stuff. It's just so horrible how many bad, ignorant things we can so easily convince ourselves to do. :(
This really touched me in another way. We just had an 11 year old girl murdered by a 17 year old boy the other day. He choked her in anger and threw her off a bridge, and everyone wore purple in honor of her. Not exactly the same thing of course, but it reminded me of that as well.
As for the polish itself, it's a beautiful color and has a great holo, and the bottle is adorable. I'll be adding this to my wish list for sure!
Oh, and I definitely think there should be more polishes for causes! I haven't been able to buy any of their polishes and only own one, but I just love Above the Curve for being such a strong advocate for scoliosis, and I'd really love to see more brands bringing awareness to important causes!
DeleteThe polish looks great...I remember my brother went to class with this kid who confessed to doing this when he was in his room at home...he said he's do it a few times a day...he'd pass out and found himself on the floor a short time later. he did it once in front of them - they were shocked. a few years later he started to have seizures. his doctor said that it may have been caused by what he was doing for so long. that scares me. i hope one day my kids will know better.
ReplyDeleteI have to say I didn't know a lot about this "game", but I'm glad you did this post to raise awareness, it just shows that anyone can be affected by something like this because they don't know the consequences. It's a really pretty polish that I hope will get more people to know about this terrible thing.
ReplyDeleteThank you so much for your post. I understand the reluctance to post, but I am so glad that you did. Thank you for sharing. I also appreciate that Pam from Girly Bits makes these beautiful polishes to raise money and awareness.
ReplyDeleteOn a happy note, I am in love with this polish. It is on my wish list for sure.
It's always so tough to get personal but you were right to share! Every parent needs talk to their children about important issues like this, even if they are doing well and involved in school.
ReplyDeletePolish seems frivolous to most, however in my experience the nail community values raising awareness and giving back. It has certainly raised my awareness on many issues which I think are not always chosen by larger corporations with vast resources to support campaigns. The choking game is not a "sexy" or "hot" topic most companies would choose but it is something that needs to be addressed, so why not through polish? In addition, I believe in the therapeutic benefit of raising awareness and giving back through creative endeavors for families and friends of loved ones.
I hope Aja's family can kind comfort in knowing they are helping save other children's lives with their polish awareness campaign.
I'm bawling now in memory of my daughter. I'm not much of a blogger but I stumbled across your comment. Thanks for having the courage to share.
DeleteAja's dad
The thought behind this polish is a really touching one - I never really heard of this game in Europe but it is good to get some focus on it! I am happy nothing bad happened from your experience and it takes courage to admit that you, as an intelligent girl, also made this "dumb" decision.
ReplyDeleteHey, I shared your swatches on my newest "Fab Finds" post! :)
ReplyDeletehttp://toriamasons-treasures.blogspot.com/2013/09/fab-finds-4.html
I'm bawling reading this for the first time. thank you so much for your courage.
ReplyDeleteAja's Dad