Pages of Purple Every child deserves more than a diagnosis.
Why purple?

Why purple is the color of epilepsy awareness

Purple is the international color of epilepsy awareness. It comes from lavender, the flower recognized worldwide as the flower of epilepsy.

Purple Day exists because of the feeling this campaign exists to undo: the certainty a newly diagnosed kid has that they are the only one in the building who has seizures. A nine-year-old with epilepsy chose the color so other kids would know that isn't true, and we would like to hand it to them as the color of being understood.

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Lavender: the international flower of epilepsy Wear purple on March 26 and it means one thing—not alone.
March 26

Purple Day, and the nine-year-old who started it

Purple Day is the global epilepsy awareness day held every March 26. It was started in 2008 by Cassidy Megan, a nine-year-old in Nova Scotia, Canada, who wanted other kids with epilepsy to know they were not alone. The Epilepsy Association of the Maritimes helped her launch it, and it is now marked in dozens of countries.

A kid started it. That is not lost on us—Pages of Purple was started by a student who has epilepsy, for the same reason.

  1. LavenderLavender becomes the flower associated with epilepsy, and purple the color that goes with it—which is why the awareness day is named for the color rather than the flower.
  2. 2008Cassidy Megan, then nine years old and living with epilepsy, creates Purple Day in Nova Scotia so other kids would know they were not the only one.
  3. Every March 26People wear purple, schools hold lessons, and organizations share seizure first aid. It is one of the few awareness days a nine-year-old can say they invented.
  4. TodayPurple is shorthand for epilepsy awareness worldwide—on shirts, ribbons, building lights, and the labels we put in every donated book.
Why it matters

Epilepsy is not rare. Feeling alone with it should be.

1 in 26people in the United States will develop epilepsy at some point in their lifetime.
456,000children in the United States are living with epilepsy right now.
66York County elementary schools whose nurses have Pages of Purple books, so a kid there can find one.

Sources: Epilepsy Foundation lifetime risk estimate; CDC estimate of children under 18 with active epilepsy, 2022.

Ways to mark Purple Day

What you can actually do on March 26

Purple Day works best when it is not just a color. Any one of these takes an afternoon.

In a school

Wear purple as a class or a staff. Read an epilepsy-inclusive book out loud. Ask your school nurse to walk students through what to do if a classmate has a seizure.

  • Request free books and materials from us
  • Ask EAWCP about staff training and seizure first aid
  • Book the Room for Friends classroom program for grades 3–6

At home or at work

Wear purple and be ready to answer why. Learn seizure first aid—it takes ten minutes and it is the difference between a scary scene and a handled one.

  • Share this page with one parent, teacher, or nurse
  • Post in purple and tag @pagesofpurpleeawcp
  • Fund a book for a child who has never read about a character like them
The name

Why we are called Pages of Purple

Pages of Purple was founded in October 2025 by Brooke Shupp, a student who was diagnosed with epilepsy at three years old. During her first stay in the Epilepsy Monitoring Unit, a nurse handed her a stuffed Seizure Bear. That bear stayed with her through years of seizures, three brain surgeries, vision loss, and recovery. Read her story.

Purple was already the color of epilepsy awareness, so the color came with the cause. The pages are the part we chose: books are how a kid finds out they are not the only one. A pamphlet explains a seizure. A story tells a child that a kid like them is still just a kid.

So we wear purple, we put a purple label in every donated book—applied by hand, one book at a time—and we named the campaign for the pages that carry it.

A nine-year-old chose this color so kids with epilepsy would know they are not alone. We put it on a book so the next kid finds that out on page one.

Every child deserves more than a diagnosis.

One bear comforted one three-year-old, and she never forgot it. Pick a way to pass that on, and another child finds out they are not alone.

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