Happy Hippie Foundation

The Happy Hippie Foundation is a nonprofit organization founded by Miley Cyrus in 2014. The Happy Hippie Foundation fights for the rights and welfare of homeless youth, the LGBTQ community, women's rights and other social justice issues that Miley Cyrus feels close to. The organization's goal is to help the youth of today change the world and to be kind to one another. According to the website the Happy Hippie Foundation's areas of focus include "prevention, crisis response to meet basic immediate needs, support services to build long-term well-being, and public education to engage young people globally in systemic change through fundraising and awareness campaigns." All of the Happy Hippie Foundation's operational costs are funded privately. In 2016 Miley Cyrus was honoured by Variety’s Power of Women event as a “Lifetime Impact Honoree” for her work with the Happy Hippie Foundation. The organization works closely with My Friends Place, an organization that helps homeless youth in the Los Angeles area. Miley Cyrus’s work with My Friends Place is what inspired her to start the Happy Hippie Foundation. Miley used the Backyard Sessions in 2015 to raise awareness of the foundation. The Happy Hippie Foundation used the #InstaPride campaign in 2015 to raise awareness of the gender spectrum on social media like Instagram. All the members of the #InstaPride campaign presented Miley's performance at the 2015 VMA's. In November 2016 The Happy Hippie Foundation started a new campaign called Hopeful Hippies which was created to encourage people to help around their cities and local communities to help make the world a more peaceful place. In November 2016 The Happy Hippie Foundation teamed up with The Dollywood Foundation in order to raise awareness and funds for the Tennessee Wildfires.

At the 2014 Video Music Award’s Miley Cyrus had a young homeless man named Jesse Helt accept her award in order to get the word out about homeless youth during his speech he stated, “There are 1.6 million runaways and homeless youth in the United States who are starving, lost and scared for their lives right now.” The speech ended with Jesse telling the viewers to visit Miley Cyrus’s facebook page in order to get involved and they were able to raise $200,000 in 24 hours for My Friend’s Place. When asked about how Miley identifies gender wise she tells Out Magazine, "I didn’t want to be a boy, I kind of wanted to be nothing. I don’t relate to what people would say defines a girl or a boy, and I think that’s what I had to understand: Being a girl isn’t what I hate, it’s the box that I get put into.” In 2016 Variety stated that the two foundations, while working together, "has donated 40,000 meals, 20,000 snacks, and 40,000 pairs of underwear and socks to homeless kids over the past two years." When asked about her thoughts on the Happy Hippie Foundation, Cyrus states, "“That’s what I wanted to do. That’s what made me happy. And that’s what Happy Hippie is about: doing what you do, being happy, and not hurting anyone. It gave me meaning in everything.” On October 18 of 2016 Lifetime's Youtube channel posted a video of Miley Cyrus explaining the Happy Hippie Foundation and all they have done so far that she is proud of while also revealing December 2014 is when she got the idea to start her own foundation when a young transgender woman named Leelah Alcorn took her own life after struggling with gender identity. In the video Miley states, "I never felt it was right that someone would lose their life over not being able to be free. It really hurt me to know that she didn't have anyone that she could talk to and I wish she would have had the Happy Hippie Foundation to reach out to." On the website for the organization they have many resources available to help the youth of today like suicide prevention hotlines to homeless shelters, the site states, "The Happy Hippie Foundation provides homeless youth, LGBTQ youth and other vulnerable populations with consistent support services, education and employment opportunities. Our programs reach at-risk and disproportionately affected populations such as youth aging out of foster care, people living with HIV/AIDS, youth in conflict zones and people affected by crisis situations."

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