UAB Lecture Series presents To Write Love on Her Arms founder Jamie Tworkowski

Jamie Tworkowski, founder of the nonprofit movement To Write Love on Her Arms, will speak at the University of Alabama at Birmingham at 7:00 pm Tuesday, September 20, in the Hill Student Center Ballroom. Tworkowski will discuss "Pain, Hope, Questions, and Community" during the event, which is free and open to the public. Doors open at 6:15 pm and the lecture will begin at 7:00 pm followed by Q&A as well as a Meet & Greet with Jamie.

In 2006, Jamie Tworkowski founded To Write Love on Her Arms (TWLOHA), a non-profit group dedicated to helping those who suffer from depression, addiction, self-injury, and suicidal tendencies find hope, support, and love. TWLOHA began as a simple attempt to tell the story of a friend in need of treatment, and soon became an internet phenomenon and global movement. In 2010, Mashable named TWLOHA the "Must-Follow Non-Profit" and in 2011, TWLOHA was awarded $1 million from the American Giving Awards. In 2015, a film based on TWLOHA was released, as was Tworkowski’s New York Times bestselling book, If You Feel Too Much, which was also one of 15 books nominated in Goodreads’ Choice Awards 2015 in the Best Memoir/Autobiography category.

In order to fund his friend's treatment, Tworkowski posted a blog on MySpace and began selling t-shirts. Supported by the bands Switchfoot, Anberlin, and Paramore, TWLOHA became widely recognized in the music world, and its message was spread across towns and cities all over the world. TWLOHA now has the largest online audience of any non-profit on MySpace and Facebook and has donated more than $1 million to treatment and recovery organizations.

This event is sponsored by the Student Involvement and Leadership and Student Counseling Services.