Be a hero like Percy Jackson

I’m not just a global health nerd. I'm also a huge fan of the Percy Jackson and the Olympians book series. This week brought some VERY exciting news to fans of these books.

How is this advocacy-related? I’m getting to that, just hang tight. 

In 4th grade, these books helped me calm down when I was stressed about my new school or about to lobby my members of Congress, like in this photo from my mom!


Rick Riordan, author of the beloved book series Percy Jackson and the Olympians (plus so many, even more awesome spinoffs) announced on Twitter with his wife Becky that Percy is coming to Disney+! This is especially exciting because the Riordans will have a lot more input, hopefully resulting in an adaptation faithful to the books.

The title of this post is misleading because we already know Percy Jackson is a hero. This post is actually about taking inspiration from the fans of his story.

Putting it diplomatically, the first attempt to make Percy Jackson movies was a disappointment to readers. Riordan agreed.

Found on the fan page https://thesevenhoo.wordpress.com/


Fans never stopped calling for a more successful reboot, though. Through social media posts, letters, and a general fandom-wide commitment to persist, the pressure was on.


And now we have this amazing news, thanks to so many people (especially the target audience of middle schoolers) making it clear what they wanted, and getting progress thanks to an influential ally, the author himself.


Once I calmed down from my fangirling, I noticed that this narrative is a lot like political advocacy.


We notice a situation less than ideal: 
The House Phase 4 bill for COVID-19 relief has no money for international development! Nothing. This is disastrous because around the world...




We build momentum to change things: 
Everyday people speak up, demanding a more just response. Organizations like RESULTS start connecting experts and volunteer advocates.


A UNICEF Club lobby meeting


We pressure those with decision-making power:

By writing letters to the editor in local newspapers, we call attention to this issue and mention members of Congress by name. We follow up and hold lobby meetings on Zoom with Congressional aides.


We are persistent:

We understand that Congress is busy during this time, but we keep in touch with aides, giving them no reason to expect us to go away. Like the middle school book clubs who kept asking for a better movie, middle/high school UNICEF clubs can keep asking for a better pandemic response!

Letters from my school's UNICEF Club. These days, I'd recommend emails over handwritten letters, though, for safety.


We gain allies for our cause:

Congress isn’t as cool as Rick Riordan, sorry to say. Nevertheless, the progress we’ve made in international development funding (except for recent events) is possible because of Congressional champions who work with us to introduce letters and bills, getting things moving through the legislative machine. For example, Representatives Barbara Lee and Martha Roby led a bipartisan letter last month, calling for an additional $1 billion in funding for the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB, and Malaria as part of the emergency response.


This letter gained 105 cosponsors in the House of Representatives, which was very cool! Perplexingly, this same group just passed a coronavirus relief bill that ignored the rest of the world. Yet the Lee-Roby letter gives me hope that if advocates double down, we can work side by side with our Congressional allies to correct recent mistakes.

8th grade Halloween, when I considered myself too old to dress up but 14 is an acceptable age to "cosplay" instead.


So, that’s the parallel I’m seeing between my favorite books getting a TV show and a crazy week for global pandemic relief funding. When a lot of people show that they care enough, our leaders can get those changes made.

Moral of the story? Don’t give up. After all, a few years ago we thought a Percy Jackson show would never happen. Today, the news about global health funding getting sidelined is very discouraging, but I’m hopeful that it can turn around if everyone takes action right away.

Here’s a handy tool to help you get started by writing a letter to the editor with RESULTS: https://results.org/volunteers/action-center/?vvsrc=%2fcampaigns%2f72606%2frespond

Good hunting, as the Hunters of Artemis would say!



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