I’m a bit of an idealistic change-the-world type of person. I want to fix the universe, basically. When I become famous one day, I will no doubt be the kind of rock star who puts on charity gigs, releases a song for charity and so on and so forth. That’s what I’m like. Deal with it. I promise I won’t go all Bono and ask for donations for environmental protection and then get in my private jet like another piece of corporate scum.

At present, I have two monthly donations to charity. I give money to the WWF’s Adopt a Polar Bear programme (they gave me a cute, fluffy polar bear cub teddy for it, too), and to The Girl Effect, a humanitarian charity I discovered quite recently and that I really believe in.

Here are a couple of videos describing, in simple terms, what they do:

I know that it seems a little naïve at first glance, but if you think about it, it makes a lot of sense. If you visit their website, there are some videos of testimonies by girls who have helped improve their community in real life.

Now, as some of you may know, my 23rd birthday is coming up, and for that occasion I’ve set up a “birthday wish” on causes.com, asking people to donate money to the girl effect. If you’d like to help me raise money for this cause, please click here, make a donation, or just share it with someone you think will. It would mean a lot to me if we could raise my target amount by the 11th. And if you think causes and birthday wishes are stupid, and you’d rather make a private donation after some more thought, The Girl Effect will still be there after my birthday has ended, too.

Please note that any money donated through My Birthday Wish will go straight to the charity trough their donation programme. I won’t see a penny of it. The Girl Effect is a non-profit charity organisation.

Thank you for your time.