A viral video exposing the measures women take to stay safe has sparked calls for a TV ad. The Mirror asks HASSL founder Amy Watson how to tackle violence at the root
A powerful video exposing the “impossible reality” of being a woman has gone viral, sparking urgent calls for it to be broadcast as a national TV advert.
Having already clocked up over 3 million views on TikTok, the footage lays bare the exhausting daily measures women take just to avoid harassment. It has triggered a furious debate about the epidemic of violence against women and girls—and why the burden of safety always seems to fall on victims.
The comment section became a rallying cry for change. “This should be an advert on national television,” one viewer insisted, while another asked the question on everyone’s lips: “You never hear: ‘Why can’t men have more self-control?’”
But how do we move from viral outrage to real-world solutions?
To find out how to tackle this violence at its root, The Mirror spoke to Amy Watson, founder of HASSL (Harassment Awareness & Safe Space Leaders). Since launching the organisation in October 2024, Watson has seen her initiative grow enormously in just 12 months.
READ MORE: Every 10 minutes a woman or girl is killed by a partner or family member, UN findsREAD MORE: Digital violence is ‘spreading at alarming speed’ as millions of women face online abuse
What is HASSL?
Amy describes HASSL as a global social enterprise with a singular, ambitious goal: tackling harassment at the root. “It’s about redirecting that responsibility away from women as individuals and onto society as a whole,” she explains.
To do this, the organisation uses a combination of training, technology, and education to target the causes of violence, rather than just the symptoms. For Amy, the current approach to women’s safety is failing.
“There’s just this constant expectation for women to do more and more things and we don’t solve the problem; it just plasters over it,” she says.
“Then [perpetrators] just find more ways around it and we’re just in this constant cycle.”
Prevention of violence
“This is an epidemic. It’s a huge problem. Violence against women and girls is universal across the world,” explained Amy.
For Amy, the “overarching” issue is clear: male violence. And she believes the only way to stop it is to stop accepting it as inevitable.
“Every social issue should be tackled by prevention rather than dealing with it after,” she explains. “I think there are so many things that people say, ‘Oh, this is just the way it is.’ But it’s not the way it is.”
The statistics back up her urgent call for change. A recent UN report revealed the chilling reality that every 10 minutes, a woman or girl somewhere in the world is killed by a family member.
In the UK, the numbers are equally grim. The Femicide Census has found that one in five homicides are domestic—with a heart-breaking 898 female victims recorded over the last decade alone.
Meanwhile, South Africa has been forced to declare gender-based violence a national disaster following widespread protests. With one of the highest femicide rates on Earth, thousands took to the streets to honour the 15 women killed there every single day.
Amy opened up about her own experience which also led her to wanting a change for women. She shared how she was on “a very crowded carriage”. She said: “I felt a hand on my leg and you know in that moment you want to think, oh, they’ve got it wrong or they think they’re touching their own leg”.
But for Amy, it just got worse as she realised, “he knows what he’s doing.”
While she is a confident person, she said “in that moment it’s so hard you do just freeze and it was a confined space.” She was shocked that “there were so many people around, but no one either realised or cared enough to do anything.”
For more stories like this subscribe to our weekly newsletter, The Weekly Gulp, for a curated roundup of trending stories, poignant interviews, and viral lifestyle picks from The Mirror’s Audience U35 team delivered straight to your inbox.
‘Unlearning misogyny’
HASSL isn’t just about raising awareness – it has a concrete five-stage plan to dismantle the four “root causes” of violence: systemic racism and misogyny, barriers to reporting, lack of awareness, and poor public space design.
“How can you make spaces safer rather than trying to make people keep themselves safe?” Amy asked.
Having already completed Stage 1 (global surveys to gather women’s lived experiences) and Stage 2 (launching workplace training dedicated to “unlearning misogyny”), the group is now in the thick of Stage 3. This phase is all about going global. It includes the viral “Impossible Reality” campaign, a new volunteer programme open to all genders, and the launch of free online education resources.
But Amy has her sights set on the future: moving into schools to educate the next generation (Stage 4) and building new technology to overhaul how women report crimes (Stage 5).
Amy explained the goal of the tech is to “break down all those barriers to reporting that allow perpetrators to continue.” Ultimately, Amy wants HASSL to become a universal language for safety. Her vision is for the HASSL logo to become a recognised “badge” displayed in windows and on doors worldwide.
“Wherever you are in the world, you see that and you know that place has taken certain steps to make their physical environment safer,” she says. “That to me is the end goal.”
But to get there, she admits that women cannot do it alone. “I want men to be part of the conversation,” she insists. “Everyone has to be involved to create a long and lasting solution.”
Help us improve our content by completing the survey below. We’d love to hear from you!
