AVENGERS-Inspired Photoshoot With 15 Heroic Children Aims To Bring Awareness To And End Bullying

Last year, photographer Josh Rossi and his wife Roxana worked with costume designer Julie Whiteley to create a Justice League-inspired photoshoot of kids with disease and disabilities as a way to showcase their inner strength and bring smiles to their faces. It turned out pretty amazing, and now Rossi has turned his attention towards another important issue: bullying.

Rossi and his wife once again turned towards photography as a way to provide a platform where bullied kids could come together and have their voices be heard. This time he decided to theme the photoshoot around the Avengers. He writes:

“After recently seeing the trailer for the new Avenger's movie, my wife Roxana and I were inspired to bring bullied kids together to provide a platform where their voices could be heard. In the movie, the bully of the universe, Thanos, comes to take over the world, but the Avengers unite to destroy him.

Each Avenger has unique differences and strengths ranging from green and purple skin to being able to stop time. Without each superhero's strength and power, their efforts to defeat Thanos will be unsuccessful.

Similar to bullying, as we unite against it we can stop it.”

Rossi and Roxana brought together 15 unique kids and not only outfitted them with some amazing Avengers costumes designed and created by Julie Whiteley, but also shared each child’s emotional story about bullying and how it has affected them in life. The video below provides a brief look at the project, and you can hear some of the stories from the kids and their parents.

“Going into this project, my wife Roxana and I didn't know the heart breaking details of each kid's story. We didn't know that 12 year old Jackson Sommers (Dr. Strange ) had 35% of his brain missing and that kids pushed him down and spit on him at school because he walked and talked differently than they did.

We didn't know that Sydney Gerardis (Gamora) was secretly contemplating her suicide when her close friends told her they'd throw a party if she died.

We definitely didn't know the cruel words that were said to Grant Southam (Ironman) when he would walk past kids at school every day and they would yell "the retard is here!" while beating their chests.”

Over on Rossi’s website you can actually read each kid’s full story. Hopefully Rossi’s project picks up steam because bullying, in any form, is a major problem our society faces.







“Bullying is about exclusion and the flawed thinking that there is only one way to be and act,” Rossi writes. “What we wanted to accomplish in this project was to unite these amazing kids together and show that our differences are what make us strong. In the words of the P.T. Barnum...No one ever made a difference by being like everyone else.’”