Nigel Barker Gives “High Five” to Support Girls Around the World

Nigel Barker, renowned fashion photographer, TV personality and author, announced today that he will be supporting the United Nations Foundation’s Girl Up campaign as one of its newest champions, joining the movement to improve the lives of adolescent girls in the developing world.

Girl Up is a “for girls, by girls” campaign that enables American girls to make a global impact by raising funds and awareness for proven UN programs that help some of the world’s hardest-to-reach adolescent girls. Girl Up supporters can give a “High Five” donation of $5 or more that provides girls in the developing countries with basic needs like access to school supplies, clean water, life-saving health services, and safety from violence.

Barker joins Girl Up today for the campaign’s official launch in New York City and will go on to support the “Unite for Girls” tour, which travels to cities across the U.S. to activate and engage teens from coast to coast. He will also visit programs Girl Up is supporting overseas that are helping make a difference in the lives of adolescent girls.

“As the father of a young daughter and son, I can attest to the undeniable power and spirit of today’s youth,” Barker said. “The unique ‘for girls, by girls’ approach of the Girl Up campaign harnesses the enthusiasm of girls in this country to help ensure every girl – no matter where she is born – is educated, healthy, safe, counted and positioned to be a part of the next generation of leaders.”

Internationally renowned, Barker is best known as a photographer and judge on the show, America’s Next Top Model, which is now in its 15th cycle, aired in more than 146 countries and watched by more than 100 million people per week. Earlier this month, Barker released his first book, Nigel Barker’s Beauty Equation: Revealing a Better and More Beautiful You. The book guides the reader through a series of self-portrait and journaling challenges, which help the reader to discover their inner beauty by building confidence and self-esteem and in turn, enhance their outer beauty.

“We are honored to have Nigel as a Girl Up champion,” said Kimberly Perry, director of the UN Foundation’s Girl Up campaign. “His involvement underscores that everyone – girls, brothers, mothers, uncles – has a role to play in empowering girls worldwide. We look forward to working with Nigel as we continue to ignite the Girl Up movement across the nation.”

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About the United Nations Foundation
The United Nations Foundation, a public charity was created in 1998 with entrepreneur and philanthropist Ted Turner’s historic $1 billion gift to support UN causes and activities. We build and implement public/private partnerships to address the world’s most pressing problems, and work to broaden support for the UN through advocacy and public outreach. Through our campaigns and partnerships, we connect people, ideas, and resources to help the UN solve global problems. The campaigns we conduct reduce child mortality, empower women and girls, create a new energy future, secure peace and human rights, and promote technology innovation to improve health outcomes. These solutions are helping the UN advance the eight global targets known as the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). For more information, visit www.unfoundation.org.

About Girl Up
Girl Up, a campaign of the United Nations Foundation, gives American girls the opportunity to channel  their energy and compassion  to raise awareness and funds for programs of the United Nations that help some of the world’s hardest-to-reach  adolescent girls. Through Girl Up’s support, girls have the opportunity to become educated, healthy, safe, counted and positioned to be the next generation of leaders. Campaign supporters are encouraged to give a “High Five” to girls in developing countries by donating $5 or more to provide girls with such basic needs as access to school supplies, clean water, life-saving health services, safety from violence and more. To give a High Five and learn more, join us at www.GirlUp.org.