Here’s Why People Are Wearing Glitter for Carrie Fisher, Star Wars Day, and Mental Health

Today, of course, is Star Wars Day. There are plenty of ways you can celebrate May the Fourth, from movie marathons to cosplay. Or you can celebrate the Carrie Fisher way: with a whole lot of glitter.

A Tumblr post that has gone viral on Imgur tells the story that probably rings familiar for many fans who have waited in line for a meet & greet or an autograph. Apparently, Fisher was known for especially long wait times, because she liked to decorate her fans with glitter.

In the post, user UnRepentantDrew recalls meeting her backstage at DragonCon. “She shook my hand and looked intently at my face. Then she pulled out a make-up case and a brush and started brushing something on to the left side of my face. I looked at Fritz, her escort, and he said, ‘She’s been doing this all day.’ Carrie grabbed my chin and turned my face back to her. She then finished COVERING the left side of my face with glitter, cocked her head to take a more critical view of her work, nodded, and went on to her next appearance. She never spoke to me the entire time but beeped my nose as she walked away.”

For the rest of the day, “I kept running into other people on the crew that day who had glitter dust on their faces. Everyone just smiled and said, ‘Oh, you ran in to Carrie, too.'”

Other users responded with stories of their own, of meeting Fisher and being “baptized” by her glitter. One person on Twitter said it felt “like being knighted.” Over the years, fans have been gracious enough to document and share their these encounters.

Anna Kendrick shared her own story of a Carrie Fisher glitter bomb.

Another user responded to that Tumblr post with a story Fisher told in one of her books, of how “her therapist … always knew she was having an ‘off’ time in her head depending on how much glitter she’d show up wearing to appointments. It was her way of making the world sparkle and shine even when it felt dark. It made her feel better. Evidently, she wanted to share that with others.”

Fisher was an outspoken advocate for mental health. She spoke often and openly about her own struggles with mental illness, doing wonders for destigmatization of the issue. For many who live with mental illness, she was a hero.

So if you want to honor Carrie Fisher and mental health advocacy, throw on a little #GlitterForCarrie. (Just please remember to keep it out of your eyes. And maybe take a second to read those labels for toxicity warnings. Stay safe. Stay sparkly.)

(featured image: LucasFilm)

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Vivian Kane

Vivian Kane (she/her) is the Senior News Editor at The Mary Sue, where she's been writing about politics and entertainment (and all the ways in which the two overlap) since the dark days of late 2016. Born in San Francisco and radicalized in Los Angeles, she now lives in Kansas City, Missouri, where she gets to put her MFA to use covering the local theatre scene. She is the co-owner of The Pitch, Kansas City’s alt news and culture magazine, alongside her husband, Brock Wilbur, with whom she also shares many cats.

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