operation smile

I think 99% of us take our smile for granted.

We've never not had it.

As style bloggers, and maybe just as human beings, we have the tendency to look for all the things that are wrong with our physical appearances while overlooking all our blessings. Many of us are healthy at all shapes, colors, and sizes, and we have every reason to be thankful for that. And sometimes the best way to show our gratitude is to take the emphasis off of ourselves and put it on someone else who needs our help. Enter Operation Smile.

Here's a quick excerpt from Operation Smile's About page:

As an international charity for children, we measure ourselves by the joy we see on all of the faces we help. At Operation Smile, we're more than a charity. More than an NGO. We're a mobilized force of medical professionals and caring hearts who provide safe, effective reconstructive surgery for children born with facial deformities such as cleft lip and cleft palate. 

Every three minutes a child is born with a cleft — often unable to eat, speak, socialize or smile. In some places these children are shunned and rejected. And in too many cases, their parents can't afford to give them the surgeries they need to live a normal life. 

That's where we come in as one of the top charities providing much needed surgical services. Since 1982, Operation Smile — through the help of dedicated medical volunteers — has provided more than 3.5 million comprehensive patient evaluations and over 200,000 free surgeries for children and young adults born with cleft lips, cleft palates and other facial deformities.

So how can you get involved? Well you can definitely donate directly to Operation Smile,  but you can also support them with something you might be buying anyway: your textbooks for next semester. I rented from Campus Book Rentals in college and was happy to find out that they support Operation Smile as part of their Making a Difference program. Personally, if I'm buying something anyway I like to do it somewhere that also benefits causes I care about.

Because I think everyone deserves a smile.

peace&love,
Jill

This post was sponsored by Campus Book Rentals, but all the opinons and viewpoints are the mine - just sharing a cause I care about. -js