I would like to introduce to you, new for Summer 2016, 'The Big Collab'.

Over the past year, campaigns and projects have been increasing tenfold, with a new one popping up every week. Contests are a common occurrence on these profiles, made so those who enter can increase their writing skills and win prizes that help their books and personal profiles gain exposure.

But this is something a little different.

The Big Collab is a collaboration contest between three campaigns and projects here on Wattpad. Run by official-visible, Project-ED, , and nomorescars.

As the founder of @official­visible and The Big Collab, I saw more and more profiles being made that shared the same fundamental message­: acceptance, for yourself and others, no matter who you are. And yet, apart from affiliations and the odd shout out, none of them interacted together. I decided to approach campaigns and projects that had a shared message behind them and were frequently active, and out of that, put together a small group of profiles.

The Big Collab was born.

This year, there are three profiles taking part. They are­-

official-visible is a campaign dedicated to getting more mental and physical disabilities/ illnesses into literature. By supporting diverse writers, writers who want facts and information to make their characters more realistic, and readers who want a direct line to books that deal with the conditions they want to read about. This is a supportive and friendly community of people where you can be completely open and safe when talking about the conditions society ignores.

Project-ED. The aim of this project is to provide safe, non­-triggering reads that include eating disorders. It also supports writers who want to write a realistic character with an eating disorder as well as providing a supportive environment for those who want to share their own personal journey.

nomorescars. This campaign is about stopping the often romanticised topic of self-­harm in literature. It supports authors who write about these topics as well as supporting those who are on their journey to recovery from self­ harm, and the healing of scars, mental and physical.

Together, our aim is to bring readers and writers awareness of other campaigns and projects they might not have known about before, while also producing short stories that tackle the issues these profiles support.

With prizes such as writing feedback, exposure to all of the profiles followers and a real life, wellbeing box for the overall winner! There are great reasons why you should get involved and enter.

I am honoured to announce that the judge for the final round will be writersblockinmyhead, also known as dlwritesbooks and the editor and creator of the Wattmag!

The contest began on the 15th of July and is running until August 15th. All you have to do is write a short story of no more than 3500 words, following the prompts and plotlines you have picked from a list given to you.

For more information, go to any of the profiles involved, and check out the book on their profiles called 'The Big Collab 2k16'­ - you can't miss it!

Don't hesitate to comment on this chapter with any questions! Hopefully, if this year is successful, The Big Collab will become a regular summer contest to look forward to.