Throughout history, there have always been individuals who, sometimes reluctantly, often accidentally, become the face of a cause. They didn’t necessarily set out to become leaders. They weren’t always polished; no PR teams whispering in their ear or image consultants making sure the right filters were on. But they had one thing in common: when injustice crossed their path, they refused to step aside.
Think of Rosa Parks, who simply said “no” when a bus driver told her to move, igniting a movement that would reshape America. Or Emmeline Pankhurst, who stood up for women’s rights, paving the way for future generations. Or Malala Yousafzai, who, at an age when most of us were worrying about being popular and bad hair days, stood up for girls’ rights to education, in the face of the Taliban.
Even modern figures like Marcus Rashford kicked more than football, he kicked the British government into helping to feed hungry children. These people didn’t come wrapped in perfection. They were real, flawed, normal people, the very thing that made them extraordinary.
And now, in our time, another name is joining that list: Ellen Roome, the voice behind #JoolsLaw.
If you watch the news, you will have seen her, most recently last week when she was in NY, alongside other bereaved parents taking part in a moving tribute to their lost children. Because when you stand up for parental rights against a system that often seems designed to grind families down, you don’t just represent yourself. You carry the voices of thousands who are too overawed, tired and scared, as well as raising awareness of the dangers which lurk on the internet.
Ellen’s fight, born from personal heartbreak, works because it’s real. It’s the quiet rage of a mother wronged who still has no answers as to why she lost her beloved son. It’s the steady, relentless push for change that comes not from ambition, but from the deep knowledge that this should not be allowed to happen to another family.
#JoolsLaw isn’t about politics. It’s about humanity. It’s about the absurd reality that, in a supposedly civilised society, parents can find themselves treated more like problems to be managed than people to be heard. And so Ellen, without fanfare, without any marketing budget, without a magic wand to fix the world, did what all those accidental heroes have done before her: she decided enough was enough.
But she can’t do it alone.
Big Tech, the vast, shadowy empire that profits from every click, every scroll, every adolescent insecurity must be pushed to do the honourable thing. We, as a society, must be louder. Sharper. More demanding. Because otherwise, nothing will change.
And if you’re a company happily advertising on these platforms, is it time to ask your marketing teams some hard questions ? Starting with: are we really happy that our beauty products are being shown to a 13-year-old girl, moments after she deletes a selfie, when the algorithm senses her low self-esteem and offers up our lipstick as the solution to her sadness?
Is that really the legacy we want our brand to leave?
And even more importantly: How can any responsible business advertise on a platform that refuses to properly invest in removing harmful content, including dangerous “challenges” that have already ended in tragedy, as it did for Ellen?
Because let’s be clear: it’s not that they can’t fix it. It’s that they won’t, unless they are forced. They would rather spend $$$ on PR consultants than coders and AI to fix issues which means you could rest a bit easier about who your child may be talking to online.
I feel that those who believe in true corporate responsibility, not just the kind that looks good in annual reports and shareholder meetings, should reconsider where and how they spend their advertising budgets. Because being complicit in a system that preys on the vulnerability of our children isn’t a neutral act. It’s a choice.
The rest of us can do our bit by standing beside Ellen Roome in her fight. Not out of guilt, but because standing together matters. Because when we support her, by sharing her story, backing #JoolsLaw, talking about it, we give her something priceless:
1. Battery power; it’s an uphill struggle.
2. We remind her she’s not shouting into the void.
3. We reassure her that this fight is right, even when the road is long and brutal.
4. And we’re grateful that she’s fighting for our children, our grandchildren, and the families of those we love.
Ellen is doing this for every teenager navigating a brutal digital world. For every parent who lies awake at night worrying about what their child might stumble across online. Supporting #JoolsLaw isn’t just backing Ellen, it’s backing your own family’s right to safety, dignity, and protection in an online world that too often treats those things as optional or a tedious chore in the pursuit for the dollar.
Fighting for justice isn’t a glamorous job. There are no red carpets or champagne receptions; it’s endless meetings, travel, baffling bureaucracy and with no end in sight.
But here’s the thing history has shown us again and again: one determined voice, properly placed, can change everything. Ellen is proof that you just need determination, resilience, and a strong sense of justice. Qualities she no doubt inherited from her father, who served in the RAF.
Ellen Roome’s fight is for your children. So please consider supporting her; every voice, gives her the battery power she needs to keep going. Because when you’re taking on Big Tech, you need every ounce of strength you can get.
#JoolsLaw
Photo by Greg Gore
