Teen designs dress out of homework to advocate for women's education

A Canadian teen fused fashion and activism for her graduation party this weekend, giving new meaning to the phrase "fashion statement."

Erinne Paisley, an incoming international relations major at the University of Toronto, designed this makeshift dress, using Scotch and duct tape, silk and satin fabric and her old calculus homework.

Across the derivatives — in bold, red marker — Paisley wrote and cleverly self-edited the following statement: "I've received my education. Not every woman has that right."

Paisley says she designed the dress months ago and worked with her best friend for seven hours to complete it.

The surprise reveal on Saturday was intended to incite a dialogue about the global disparity in women's education.

"As graduation was kind of approaching, the fact that over 62 million girls don't have access to the right to a secondary education was something that was on my mind," Paisley says. "There's so much excitement and celebration around the completion of secondary education, all across — especially North America — that I wondered if this kind of excitement and energy could be redirected to passing that on to people who don't have the same opportunities."

Paisley is auctioning the dress to raise money for the Malala Fund, a nonprofit organization founded by Malala Yousafzai, which advocates for policy reform and invests in local and national teaching initiatives for disadvantaged communities.

The dress is currently going for $675, and Paisley says she personally donated $250 — the price she would have spent on a store-bought dress — to the nonprofit.

The young activist adds that she's blown away by the positive reception to the dress and hopes to create the same momentum for other projects in the future.

This article was originally published on USA TODAY College.