Anne Hebert, a marketing writer living in Austin, TX, jokes that her closest friends think that her hobby is "low-key harassment for social good". She authors a website devoted entirely to People Doing Good Things. She's hosted a yearly canned food drive with up to 150 people stopping by to donate, resulting in hundreds of pounds of donations to take to the food bank for the past decade.
"I try to share info in a positive way that gives people hope and makes them aware of solutions or things they can do to try to make the world a little better," she said.
For now, she's encouraging people through a barrage of persistent, informative, and entertaining emails with one goal in mind: getting people to VOTE. The thing about emailing people and talking about politics, according to Hebert, is to catch their attention—which is how lice got involved.
"When my kids were in elementary school, I was class parent for a year, which meant I had to send the emails to the other parents. As I've learned over the years, a good intro will trick your audience into reading the rest of the email. In fact, another parent told me that my emails always stood out, especially the one that started: 'We need volunteers for the Valentine's Party...oh, and LICE.'"
Hebert isn't working with a specific organization. She is simply trying to motivate others to find ways to plug in to help get out the vote.
Photo by Phillip Goldsberry on Unsplash
The emails, which are entertaining and informative, break down basic ideas for exactly how to help educate and motivate other people to exercise their right to vote. She offers a multitude of suggestions and ideas based on level of difficulty, making it easy even for the most apathetic members of society. Her quirky and smart communication strategy caught the attention of Notley Tide, a non-partisan initiative launched in June of this year to encourage others to tap into their networks to advance racial justice and voting rights.
The members of Notley Tide receive monthly call-to-action emails, and Hebert's helpful resources have been shared in them, according to Minh Vu, who is leading the effort.
"A rising tide lifts all boats...in this case, our 'tide' is made up of our community of monthly givers and doers committed to building a more racially just future," said Vu. "The roots of the systemic and institutional racism that has been pervasive throughout our country's history continued to expose itself at the expense of Black lives with the murder of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, and countless others."
Hebert wasn't always this passionate about the democratic process; she began a couple of years ago by writing emails to a handful of people, encouraging them to educate themselves and take action to spread awareness of the importance of voting in every single election.
"Many people have never phone banked or knocked on doors," Hebert said. "My goal is to give people an entry point at which they are comfortable. Does anyone like to bake? Can anyone stuff envelopes?"
Photo courtesy of Anne Hebert
Research shows that more than a third of eligible voters are Gen Z or millennials, and 83% of people ages 18 to 29 believe they have the power to change the country and the world. However, voter registration numbers are down as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, and with so many issues on the line, getting the young voters to make their voices heard is imperative. This is why Procter & Gamble has partnered with Global Citizen and HeadCount for #JustVote, a new initiative to register as many new voters as possible.
Hebert is concerned about missed opportunities for high schoolers and college students to register to vote, due to the impact of Covid-19. Normally those efforts are heavily promoted on campuses, and pushed forward by school administrators. With many schools operating abnormally due to the pandemic, there's a huge need to get kids who recently turned 18 or who are of age, but have never voted before, registered to vote and informed on where their voting locations are.
"I've organized with my neighbors to work to increase voter registration and turnout in our precinct and now we are helping with the surrounding precincts...the last two weekends, we got volunteers to put voter registration forms on thousands and thousands of student apartment complexes."
Photo courtesy of Anne Hebert
Voting is one way you can make a difference. Another is getting more people to the polls in November. So let's go do some social good.
Turn your everyday actions into acts of good by P&G Good Everyday, a rewards program for people who want to make a positive impact in the world.
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There's a reason why some people can perfectly copy accents, and others can't
Turns out, there's a neurodivergent link.
A woman in black long sleeve shirt stands in front of mirror.
Have you ever had that friend who goes on vacation for four days to London and comes back with a full-on Queen's English posh accent? "Oooh I left my brolly in the loo," they say, and you respond, "But you're from Colorado!" Well, there are reasons they (and many of us) do that, and usually it's on a pretty subconscious level.
It's called "accent mirroring," and it's actually quite common with people who are neurodivergent, particularly those with ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder). According Neurolaunch, the self-described "Free Mental Health Library," "Accent mirroring, also known as accent adaptation or phonetic convergence, is the tendency to unconsciously adopt the accent or speech patterns of those around us. This linguistic chameleon effect is not unique to individuals with ADHD, but it appears to be more pronounced and frequent in this population."
Essentially, when people have conversations, we're constantly "scanning" for information—not just the words we're absorbing, but the inflection and tone. "When we hear an accent, our brains automatically analyze and categorize the phonetic features, prosody, and intonation patterns," writes Neurolaunch. For most, this does result in copying the accent of the person with whom we're speaking. But those with ADHD might be more sensitive to auditory cues. This, "coupled with a reduced ability to filter out or inhibit the impulse to mimic…could potentially explain the increased tendency for accent mirroring."
While the article explains further research is needed, they distinctly state that, "Accent mirroring in individuals with ADHD often manifests as an unconscious mimicry of accents in social situations. This can range from subtle shifts in pronunciation to more noticeable changes in intonation and speech rhythm. For example, a person with ADHD might find themselves unconsciously adopting a Southern drawl when conversing with someone from Texas, even if they’ve never lived in the South themselves."
People are having their say online. On the subreddit r/ADHDWomen, a thread began: "Taking on accents is an ADHD thing?" The OP shares, "My whole life, I've picked up accents. I, myself, never noticed, but everyone around me would be like, 'Why are you talking like that??' It could be after I watched a show or movie with an accent or after I've traveled somewhere with a different accent than my 'normal.'
They continue, "Apparently, I pick it up fast, but it fades out slowly. Today... I'm scrolling Instagram, I watch a reel from a comedian couple (Darcy and Jeremy. IYKYK) about how Darcy (ADHD) picks up accents everywhere they go. It's called ADHD Mirroring??? And it's another way of masking."
(The OP is referring to Darcy Michaels and his husband Jeremy Baer, who are both touring comedians based in Canada.)
Hundreds of people on the Reddit thread alone seem to relate. One comments, "Omfg I've done this my whole life; I'll even pick up on the pauses/spaces when I'm talking to someone who is ESL—but English is my first language lol."
Sometimes, it can be a real issue for those around the chameleon. "I accidentally mimicked a waitress's weird laugh one time. As soon as she was out of earshot, my family started to reprimand me, but I was already like 'oh my god I don’t know why I did that, I feel so bad.'"
Many commenters on TikTok were shocked to find out this can be a sign of ADHD. One jokes, "Omg, yes, at a store the cashier was talking to me and she was French. She's like 'Oh are you French too? No, I'm not lol. I'm very east coast Canada."
And some people just embrace it and make it work for them. "I mirror their words or phrase! I’m 30. I realized I start calling everyone sweetie cause my manager does & I work at coffee shop."