Zooey Deschanel wants to make the world a better place. Now that she is a mom of two kids, it’s especially important for her to speak up about gender equality. This is why the New Girl star and She & Him musician started collaborating with Baby2Baby and Huggies to help donate 2.5 million diapers to families in need.
Deschanel herself has donated diapers, as well as clothes her 2-year-old daughter, Elsie Otter, and 4-month-old son, Charlie Wolf, have outgrown to Baby2Baby.
She told Huffington Post why she decided to get involved:
“I was really excited because Huggies is donating about 3 million diapers to families in need, and that’s so huge. It helps to understand how crucial diapers are. It’s an absolute bottom line basic need, and you shouldn’t have to choose between diapers and food or diapers and clothes. It should be something that’s a given.”
Part of the campaign is using the hashtag #DonateDiapers, and it’s not just about social media coverage–Huggies “will match every tweet this week with the hashtag with a day’s worth of diapers for a family that receives help from Baby2Baby,” according to HuffPost.
Proud to accept 2.5MM @Huggies diapers for @Baby2Baby children. RT & Huggies will donate another day’s worth of diapers! #DonateDiapers pic.twitter.com/f2bmUGkitB
— zooey deschanel (@ZooeyDeschanel) September 26, 2017
Deschanel went on to say that spreading the word really helps, even if you don’t have time to volunteer, especially as a parent:
It’s really important to teach your kids at a young age to volunteer and how to help raise money and raise awareness. I think raising awareness about issues is the most important thing, because not everyone has the time to volunteer or the funds to donate money, but if you are able to spread the word then the awareness really sparks a lot of the ability of these causes to attract attention and to fix some of the problems that are out there.
It’s not just about diapers either. She is also interested in creating more sustainable food options, which is not surprising considering her husband and producer Jacob Pechenik created a series called Your Food’s Roots, which helps educate people on where their food comes from and how to be better consumers.
So, when it comes to raising her kids, her main priority is to raise them to be kind–and confident:
“I think that the main thing is just not standing in their way. My daughter is only 2, but she’s so strong and confident. I think it’s not letting those societal kind of pressures and those stereotypes affect them.
I think it’s mainly encouraging kids to express themselves and speak out and be confident.”
Her lasting advice? It’s simple:
“Get the kids on a schedule. If they have regular naps and they don’t get too overtired they sleep so much better at night. And when you’re able to get sleep as a parent, you’re a better parent and a better human.”
Couldn’t say it better.
