Olly Pike is the Director and CEU (Chief Executive Unicorn) of Pop'n'Olly, an LGBTQ+ equality educational resource used by children, parents, carers and teachers. Pop'n'Olly’s videos and books are used in primary schools across the UK, and beyond, to teach about equality, diversity and acceptance.

Pop’n’Olly have created the #KennyLives campaign to help support their goal of providing children across the UK with LGBT+ inclusive resources to help to combat prejudice before it can even begin.

Jack Lynch, Pop’n’Olly’s Marketing Manager, said: “We launched our #KennyLives campaign back in 2019 with the aim of providing a copy of our latest book, ‘Kenny Lives with Erica and Martina’ to every UK primary school. The Pop'n'Olly mission is to provide accessible LGBT+ education resources for educators across the UK to support them in bringing equality education into their classrooms. The #KennyLives campaign aims to make sure every UK primary school has access to an LGBT+ inclusive resource."

Instead of Olly’s usual speaker’s fee, the University will donate the equivalent cost of ten copies of the 'Kenny Lives with Erica and Martina' books to the #KennyLives campaign, which will be designated for local primary schools.

Caroline Digby-Bowl, Senior Lecturer in Sport and Exercise Sciences and CCCq member, said: “We are really excited to be able to host Olly Pike from Pop’n’Olly for this inclusive story time for families, our student teachers, and schools.

“LGBT+ History Month provides us with a great opportunity to look back at LGBT+ history and celebrate the progress that has been made by activists before us, commemorate those that have been lost along the way, and educate ourselves and others of the issues and struggles LGBT+ people still face today.

“Inclusion, equality, and diversity are important topics to discuss with our children, and the resources at Pop’n’Olly really help to start those conversations before prejudices begin so that we can try to live in a more tolerant and inclusive society.

“On a personal note, my 3-year-old son is a big fan of Olly’s books, so we are looking forward to the event together!”

The University Library is also supporting LGBT+ History Month, and has purchased six of Olly’s books, including 'Kenny Lives with Erica and Martina', for the Curriculum Resources collection. The Library has a wealth of LGBT+ inclusive books for children and young people – find out what the Library has to offer in their latest blog.

The ‘CCCq Inclusive Story Time with Olly Pike from Pop'n'Olly’ event will take place online on Friday 12 Feb at 10am, and is open to staff, students, and members of the local community. Register for free here.

The story reading is one of a series of exciting and thought-provoking events organised by the CCCq staff network and the student LGBT SU society, to celebrate LGBT+ History Month. This year, the theme is ‘Body, Mind and Spirit’, and events are focused on keeping the community connected and supporting wellbeing.

Find out more about the LGBT+ History Month events.