Canadian Teen Makes Graduation Dress Out of Homework to Support Malala

— -- It is not unusual for a teenage girl to spend a day shopping for the perfect graduation dress, but it is unusual for a teen to spend a day in her living room crafting the perfect dress out of around 30 pages of notes from her pre-calculus course.

That is exactly what Victoria, British Columbia, student Erinne Paisley did last month in order to make a statement at her graduation.

“I thought that making my dress with old homework paper ... would redirect the attention from celebrating our own secondary education to try to provide the same opportunity to people who don’t yet have the right,” Paisley, 18, told ABC News.

Paisley’s message on her custom-made homework dress was clear. Written in bright red marker across the homework papers are the words, “I've received my education. Not every woman has that right."

Paisley also included the website Malala.org on her dress, a reference to Malala Yousafzai, the Pakistan native who survived a 2012 shooting while on her way to school and later won the Nobel Peace prize for her efforts to promote education.

“In 2014 I went to the first-ever We Day UK in London and saw Malala speak live and it was so moving, to an extent I can’t even describe,” Paisley said. “Just being in the same space as her, even thought it was a massive stadium, just that she’s so similar to me but the things that she’s gone through are so horrific.”

Once Paisley had the idea to use her dress to make a statement, she and a friend spent an entire day making a dress that could “physically hold up and not fall off.”

“It was a lot of trial and error,” Paisley said. “We used a lot of tape and the middle part is velvet from a local craft store, and the straps are satin.”

Paisley, who plans to attend the University of Toronto in the fall to study international relations, kept the dress a secret from her classmates. When she wore the dress to her school’s graduation party on May 30, Paisley says it sparked a conversation.

“When I wore it, I was nervous about the response,” she said. “I think a lot of people were curious and a lot of people approached me and asked about it, which is what I wanted, a conversation.”

Paisley is now auctioning off her dress and says all money raised will go directly to the Malala Fund. The current bid is $675.

The teenager tweeted Malala’s organization when she made the dress, and was thrilled when it replied and asked her to write a blog about the dress.

Even more thrilling for Paisley is that the organization told her Malala, her inspiration, knows about her dress.

“I just had to ask if there was any chance Malala would read the post and they responded, ‘Malala reads every single blog post. She will see it,’" Paisley said. “So that’s been amazing to know that she has seen my story.”