Blossom the Project

A quick look at educational social media

By Kim Bartos

In honor of pride month, I’d like to take the time to tell you all about an amazing resource I’ve used to not only educate myself, but also spread awareness of tons of content related to gender equality, sexuality, mental health, and social issues. This is “Blossom the Project.”

What is it?

Blossom the Project is a gorgeous Instagram account created by social activist Meg, or Nakagawa-Hoffman Ai (@megsdottir). The account typically focuses on themes including but not limited to mental health and social issues. It sits currently at an impressive 70.7k followers.

What does it do?

Blossom the Project uploads easy-to-digest content paired with original illustrations that cover a variety of current as well as historical events in both Japanese and English. These posts provide information to educate yourself and others, and often provide helpful methods to take care of one’s own mental health—such as using words of affirmationself-care ideas, etc.

Why is it important?

For me personally, one of my major, albeit a bit grandeur, goals I had made for myself when arriving in Japan on JET was to—in some way possible—be a voice of compassion and a resource for students struggling with mental health. Mental health has its fair share of misunderstandings around the world, but Japan still struggles exceptionally with bringing it out “of the shadows.”

Blossom the Project’s creator, Meg, has been quoted saying, “The news often talks about how high the suicide rate in Japan is, but when it comes to what Japanese society is actually doing about it, nothing is being done. I myself lost a family member to suicide. It is not just a number in statistics, but an individual life, and I feel sad and angry when I hear people say, ‘It’s just the way Japanese society is.’”

Blossom the Project’s content offers concise and useful information in both Japanese and English that can be an incredible resource for so many people, in so many settings. It can be a great way to open up heavy conversations such as sexism, racism, or depression in a simple, straight forward format. Japanese-specific issues are also heavily covered, which can be a great way to get English learners to think abstractly and logically in a foreign language.

Why do I personally share their posts as much as possible?

If you follow me on Instagram, you’ve most likely seen me share every single slide in Blossom the Project’s posts. Not only do I have many of the same interests as the topics discussed on Blossom the Project, I find it incredibly resourceful for educating my friends and coworkers who happen to follow me. Although the likelihood of conversations like social justice or BLM to come up naturally in the Japanese workplace is quite low, I find it well worth the 30 seconds it takes to read and share the posts. You never know who might need to see information on important issues, or even need to hear kind words like

“You are enough,” and “You matter.”

To me, a simple click can be a gateway to open-minded, important, and educated conversation. And I believe that is something our world desperately needs. Blossom the Project even has a short and quick post about Pride here.Why not use this as a nice way to get the ball rolling?

References:

https://i-d.vice.com/jp/article/g5bzkx/blossom-the-project https://www.instagram.com/blossomtheproject/?hl=en https://www.instagram.com/megsdottir/