Short and to the point. Herpes Awareness Day is Saturday October 13th, 2018. Two hashtags can help inspire action on this day! #whatstigma calls to people who know someone living with herpes and encourages them to share something cool or that they learned from this person that goes against the stigma of a person who is 'gross' or has a lot of sex with a lot of people. You can drop a quote from them or talk about your relationship to that person after they shared their diagnosis with you. This sets the foundation for people to see that they have support around them. People may be suffering to themselves in silence and the only way for them to safely pursue support is to know that there's someone close to them offering it. #Ihaveherpesand is for those of us who feel empowered and want to empower. Yeah . . . #ihaveherpesand I run a gym, I have a healthy family, have an amazing partner, I run a nonprofit or started a podcast. This is for those of us who are open about their status or want to come out so that people can see just how little impact herpes itself has on our overall quality of life. This isn't about coming out. If you're not in a place to do so, please don't feel pressured. It's important to do what feels best for you and if that means not participating, that is 100% fine. The goal is to create a call for people to just be there for those who may be struggling with their diagnosis and have a person to go to who's safe to share their new diagnosis so that they have support dealing with the emotions and mental aspects of it. October 13th - #whatstigms #ihaveherpesand I'm on social media @HOnMyChest Stay Positive!