News Coverage


Learn Self Defense with New Site

Learn Self Defense with New Site

- Cosmo Girl
Here's a shocking stat for you. One in four girls between the ages of 11 and 19 will be sexually assaulted. Did you know that over 100,000 abductions could be attempted in the U.S. this year? Well, Dallas Jessup (now 17 years old) was just 13 years old when she learned of those mind-boggling numbers and had to do something. A black belt in martial arts, she decided to create a short video teaching her classmates basic self-defense moves. The small class project got support from...

Teen program makes way to eastern New Mexico: Dallas Jessup to visit Portales Friday, Clovis Saturday

Teen program makes way to eastern New Mexico: Dallas Jessup to visit Portales Friday, Clovis Saturday

- pntonline
Dallas Jessup knew she would be helping her classmates at her Portland Ore., high school when she made a film about self defense.
What she didn’t know is that the film would grow into a world-wide non-profit organization now credited for starting a revolution.
The film teaches self-defense techniques. Jessup, 18, said when she was 13 she found out that one in three women will be sexually assaulted in their lifetime. As a black belt martial artist, she knew she could help her...

Eighteen-Year-Old Working to Fight Human Trafficking

Eighteen-Year-Old Working to Fight Human Trafficking

- Global Shift
When visiting India in her junior year of high school, Dallas Jessup was surprised to see the way the women were treated. While Jessup and her party got to sit at the table for dinner with the host family they were staying with, the native women were not allowed to sit down with the men and guests, and stood around the table serving the food. “Every time you took a bite they would give you more,” she said in an interview with Global Shift. “Only after everyone else was done they got...

Teaching Girls to Fight Back Against Sexual Assault

Teaching Girls to Fight Back Against Sexual Assault

- The Stir
April is Sexual Assault Awareness and Prevention Month, which makes it just as good a time as any to talk about the work of teen revolutionary Dallas Jessup, 17, whose self defense home video launched an incredible organization called Just Yell Fire.
Not only do you not want to mess with Texas. You also don't want to mess with Dallas!
According to the Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System (YRBSS), a national survey of high school students, approximately 9% of students...

CNN Teen Hero Brings Street Fighting Self-Defense to Eastern New Mexico Girls on April 9

CNN Teen Hero Brings Street Fighting Self-Defense to Eastern New Mexico Girls on April 9

- ENMU Memo
CNN Teen Hero Dallas Jessup (18) will teach Eastern New Mexico girls how to fight back against sexual assault and abduction with her award-winning "Just Yell Fire" Fire program at the Eastern New Mexico University Mainstage Theatre in the University Theatre Center at 6 p.m. on April 9 at 6 p.m. 
The event is free and open to the public.
Following a short presentation by Ms. Jessup on volunteerism (based on her teen activism book), girls will learn how to...

Dallas Jessup Bringing Focus to Social Injustice

Dallas Jessup Bringing Focus to Social Injustice

- Technorati
Dallas Jessup is your average teenager. You know, the type that gets behind a global cause by producing an acclaimed independent film and a best-selling book. And, oh, who could forget, testifying in front of the U.S. House of Representatives with an unusual solution to worldwide human trafficking crisis.
Jessup, a Vanderbilt University freshman, captured the worldwide spotlight with her film "Just Yell Fire" and NGO of the same name which focus on empowering teenage...

Cool Girl: Dallas Jessup, 17, of Just Yell Fire

Cool Girl: Dallas Jessup, 17, of Just Yell Fire

- I Heart Daily
I Heart Daily often writes about girls who kick ass, but Dallas Jessup, 17, really does kick ass -- literally.
Four years ago, Dallas learned the frightening statistic that that 1 in 4 girls ages 11-19 will be sexually assaulted. In addition, there will be over 100,000 attempted abductions of girls in the US alone -- scary.
The then-13-year-old black belt martial artist set out to make a home video to teach her classmates self-defense moves based on her training in...

Vanderbilt U. Freshman working with Federal Commission to Address Human Trafficking

Vanderbilt U. Freshman working with Federal Commission to Address Human Trafficking

- UWire
When the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission asked Dallas Jessup to testify at a federal hearing about human trafficking on two weeks notice, the Vanderbilt U. freshman said she didn’t hesitate.
“My mom called me and she said, ‘You have this email, do you want to go to D.C. and testify? First check your class schedule ...’ and I’m like ‘I don’t care. Just set me down, reply yes for me and I want to go.’ I knew it was something that would be...

Teen activist to give self-defense seminar at ENMU

Teen activist to give self-defense seminar at ENMU

- pntonline
Dangerous situations and dating rights are the topics for a national show at Eastern New Mexico University.
The 6 p.m. April 9 program at the Eastern New Mexico University Theater Center will feature Dallas Jessup teaching young adults how to deal with dangerous situations. The event is free to the public.
“April is Sexual Assault Awareness Month and our Sexual Assault Response Team (SART) wanted to find an effective outlet to educate young women in our area,” said Amber...

Teen Girl Teaches Peers to Literally Kick Ass Against Predators

Teen Girl Teaches Peers to Literally Kick Ass Against Predators

- Change.org
If I was a sexual predator, I would not want to run into 18-year-old Dallas Jessup in a dark alley late at night. Nor would I want to run into the thousands of teen girls who she has taught self-defense and street fighting to over the five years. Nor would I have wanted to run into her when she began teaching self-defense, at age 13, when she was already a Tae Kwon Do black belt and had studied Filipino street fighting. That's because Dallas Jessup is one teen girl teaching other ...