Today Lady Gaga and her mother, Cynthia Germanotta, are launching the Born This Way Foundation, a national anti-bullying movement to empower youth. As stated on the foundation’s website, the Born This Way mission is to “foster a more accepting society, where differences are embraced and individuality is celebrated.” There is a keynote this afternoon at Harvard University featuring Lady Gaga and Cynthia, Oprah Winfrey and the Secretary of Health and Human Services, Kathleen Sebelius. The event will be live streamed from 1-2:30PM PST.

Noted on the site are the three pillars of the Born This Way Foundation, including creating safe places to celebrate individuality, skills to teach advocacy and promote civic engagement  and opportunities for ways to implement solutions  and get local communities involved. The more interactive aspects of the Foundation include sharing “Stories of Bravery,” entering a poster contest and donating money to the cause. The foundation stems from Lady Gaga’s own insecurities growing up and being a victim of bullies herself. She has also repeatedly spoken out about the teen suicides in the United States as a result of bullying, particularly those of LGBT youth.

This foundation is a great complement to other anti-bullying initiatives like the Great American NO BULL Challenge and we look forward to following what it does to activate and inspire youths to take a stand against bullying.