A Vanderbilt University coed, author and filmmaker is launching her new film Just Yell Fire: Campus Life focused on helping college girls defend against the 1 in 3 chance they’ll encounter dating abuse, sexual assault, date rape drugs or violence on or off campus regardless of socioeconomic status.
In 2006 at 15, Dallas Jessup was thrust into the national spotlight when she produced a self-defense video for high school girls Just Yell Fire. It grew into a million girl worldwide revolution. She was nominated for a Teen Choice Award for her work.
Just Yell Fire: Campus Life is the sequel and launching now on the Internet for free online viewing. “Girls are naïve when they go to college,” says Jessup. “They’re on their own for the first time and find themselves in social and life situations, sometimes dangerous, without any preparation.” Just Yell Fire: Campus Life uses real-life scenarios straight from the headlines:
• Girls learn to spot and often avoid dangerous situations such as jogging alone after dark, leaving dorm doors unlocked, abusive boyfriends, after-hours library visits and unattended beverages that are easily drugged;
• College women also learn some street fighting techniques to get away from bad situations including biting, eye gouging, tearing an ear and others that work regardless of size or strength. These techniques were developed by Dallas Jessup who is also a street fighting and martial arts expert;
Several top celebrities appear in Just Yell Fire: Campus Life reading passages from a Dating Bill of Rights. Entertainment and sports notables, including stars of Twilight, Pretty Little Liars, “General Hospital,” “Teen Wolf,” “One Tree Hill,” “Dancing with the Stars” and others tell girls: “You have the right to stand up for yourself”; “You have the right to live free of fear”; “You have the right to say no, always.”
For parents, teachers and friends of college girls, this is exactly what they want their girls to know. For college coeds, it’s important life-saving information; and now it’s free online.
Filmmaker Dallas Jessup (20), author of Young Revolutionaries Who Rock (Sutton Hart), founded and leads Just Yell Fire, a nonprofit focusing on combating violence against girls and young women, now a Million Girl Revolution across 64 countries. Dallas, a Vanderbilt University senior as a McKelvey Scholar and a featured Mensa speaker, received the National Speakers Association founder’s award recognizing her 200,000+ miles traveled, speaking out as a leading voice of the young women’s empowerment movement. A Hall of Fame for Caring Americans inductee, recognized with multiple national service awards and recipient of the President’s Youth Service Award, Jesup uses the art of film and ubiquity of Internet distribution to teach girls and young women how to stay safe in a too-often dangerous world. She has been featured on “The Today Show,” “Good Morning America,” CNN, “Fox & Friends,” and in The New York Times, USA Today, People and other publications. More on Dallas. Sample Video from AM Northwest interview.
