Lifestyle

Men Are Now Painting Their Nails To Raise Awareness For Child Abuse (Photos)

If you've been paying attention to social media, you may have noticed a bunch of guys showing off their freshly polished nails.

However, they're not trying to put the "man" in manicure and start a new beauty trend.

It turns out there's a new Internet campaign called #polishedman on a mission to raise awareness about violence against children.

Elliot Costello, the CEO of Australian nonprofit YGAP, is the mastermind behind the Polished Man initiative, and came up with the idea after a little girl who was a victim of child abuse painted his nails blue.

The campaign encourages guys from around the globe to bring attention to this issue and raise money by rocking their own nail polishes, and now lots of men are showing off their manicures on Instagram.

Take a look at the pictures below to see the awesome new Instagram trend.

If you thought women were the only ones who paint their nails...

...you clearly haven't seen the newest trend on social media.

Now men are sporting manis for a good cause...

...thanks to the #polishedman Internet campaign.

This new campaign seeks to raise awareness about child abuse...

...by encouraging men to deck out their digits in bright polishes.

The campaign was created by Elliot Costello.

While volunteering at the Hagar International charity project in Cambodia, he met a little girl named Thea who painted his nails blue.

Costello later learned Thea had a heartbreaking history of child abuse.

According to the initiative's website, "Thea's mother chose to send her to an orphanage... at just [8] years old, Thea was raped on a daily basis for two years by the orphanage carer..."

There are many other children just like Thea who experience both physical and sexual abuse.

This inspired Costello to launch the campaign, and now he's on a mission to help kids around the world.

Costello hopes his #polishedman campaign will help bring attention to this issue and raise money for the cause.

Costello told Huffington Post, "It is important to acknowledge this is a global challenge."

He continued, "While most men don't perpetrate violence, 90 [percent] of sexual violence committed against children is perpetrated by men and we all have a responsibility to help change that."

Citations: Men Are Painting Their Nails To Raise Child Abuse Awareness In The #PolishedMan Campaign (Bustle), Why We Should All Prefer a Polished Man (Huffington Post), POLISHED MAN CHALLENGES MEN TO END VIOLENCE AGAINST CHILDREN (Polished Man)