Every Day Is Special: August 3

August 3 – Esther Day

Posted on August 3, 2019

A young woman named Esther Earl (her last name is almost the same as mine!) was born on this date in 1994. I am going to tell you right up front that she died of thyroid cancer at the tragically young age of 16 - but not without making more of a splash than many other people who have lived on planet Earth.

I mean, let's face it, how many of us have a holiday?

I have never heard of the worlds in which Earl made that splash - the worlds of Nerdfighters and of the Harry Potter Alliance.

Nerdfighters is a community of people who fight against "world suck" (which is the total amount of suck in the world) by doing awesome things. This community sprung up around the VlogBrothers, John and Hank Green. John Green is the author of the award-winning book (which was also turned into a movie) The Fault in Our Stars, which Green says was partly inspired by Earl. The Greens established The Foundation to Decrease World Suck, a non-profit that helps in a variety of good causes, promotes education, and works on free-speech and ownership-of-intellectual-products issues. Nerdfighters and the Greens started a charitable drive called Project for Awesome and also VidCon, a convention about Vlogs and other digital media.

The Harry Potter Alliance is also non-profit, but more activist that charity. Run by Harry Potter fans, it started by shining a light on human rights violations in Sudan. Now it works on bunches of issues, from LGBTQ+ rights to climate change, from literacy to body image, from sexism to immigration reform.

Esther doing the Nerdfighter salute

Esther Earl was a writer who built up a following on Twitter, Tumblr, and YouTube, and was active both in Nerdfighters and in the Harry Potter Alliance. Esther Day is something now promoted by the Green brothers, but Earl suggested the holiday, saying that she wanted the day to be about family and love. The first Esther Day was celebrated on her birthday just three weeks before she died.

Earl's writings and her biography have been published together in a bestseller called This Star Won't Go Out. Of course, this book was published several years after Earl died.