During her freshman year of high school, Josie Liu discovered Dressember, an organization that raises awareness of human trafficking.
It sparked a passion in her to raise awareness about human trafficking in any way she could — such as by wearing dresses and ties for the Dressember challenge with her friend Charlie Carr, junior in LAS and technical communications officer for Dressember.
Liu, now a junior in Media, is the president of Dressember. Its recent events have raised the RSO $2,000 for the International Justice Mission.
These included its first Circular Fashion Exposition runway, a house show with Concordia, a Mia Za’s fundraiser and a dog therapy session dedicated to helping human trafficking survivors.
Dressember has other ways of bringing awareness to human trafficking, like its passion for fashion sustainability and how the fashion industry drives it.
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Dressember’s dedication to bringing the severity of human trafficking to light was presented at its recent CFE runway.
Emily Huffman, sophomore in Media and Dressember’s secretary, said it was mainly Liu’s idea for the group to host the runway and address Dressember’s roots.
“It was her idea to get us involved in CFE, and she knows a lot of people on the CFE board,” Huffman said. “We are a fashion-leading club, and Dressember started as a fashion challenge, so we’re kind of leaning into that.”
The runway wasn’t put together overnight. The RSO hosted several craft nights for people to make their outfits before the big day.
“We held socials for our models,” Liu said. “I hosted a painting night in my apartment where we had a ton of cardboard cut out like stars and moons and painted a bunch of pins to put together a more cohesive look.”
Dressember’s events wouldn’t be possible without the connections Liu made during her time at the University.
“It’s really nice to work with someone who has an arsenal to pull from,” Huffman said. “Because even if we have an idea, she’s like, ‘Oh, I have this person’s contact that we can reach out to and see if they’d be willing to do something with us.’”
Liu’s leadership and networking abilities have inspired other executive members to take on a similar approach in other RSOs.
“I think that she can read a room very well and sort of tell the appropriate course of action based upon individual personalities and values within that room,” Carr said. “I think it’s an effective style of leadership, and it really influenced me to take a similar approach in some of my other RSOs.”
Carr wasn’t the only one inspired by Liu’s leadership — it gave George Taylor, junior in FAA and outreach chair for Dressember, the courage to help run a club focused on sustainable fashion.
“I would not have been confident running a club like this that was originally fashion-focused if it were not for Josie’s encouragement that I’d be good at it,” Taylor said. “She’s a big presence in general and can get focused on something and build it from nothing.”
When she isn’t proposing new ideas for Dressember events or going to the weekly executive meetings, Liu is an intern at the Women’s Resources Center, in two bands — Wÿrd Sisters and Lovebite — and is involved in her sorority, Phi Sigma Sigma.
Liu’s internship as the gender equity chair started with her desire to get drink-testing kits at the WRC to prevent spikes on campus. Today, she’s focusing on expanding its social media presence.
“I’ve done a lot of posts with Women’s History Month,” Liu said. “I just want to expand the scope of the Women’s Resources Center because no one knows what it is.”
Lovebite was meant to be a girl band. That changed when Liu discovered that Carr was a great guitarist. Wyrd Sisters started as a joke with the members of BLINKD until they decided to go for it.
“It’s been really fun,” Liu said. “I learned how to play the bass, and I’m starting to learn how to sing.”
When it comes to Liu’s involvement in two bands, she says that both meet at least twice a week for practice.
Despite the struggle to practice around everyone’s busy schedules, she said Lovebite has a concert date set for April at Purdue.
Dressember will also take the stage in April, continuing its hard work and collaboration with other clubs to raise more awareness.
“We’re going to start working with organizations traditionally focused on immigrants’ right to work,” Taylor said. “We’re going to educational campaigns about the overlap between immigration enforcement and human trafficking and the way federal enforcement can sometimes make human trafficking worse.”
