Kristen Bell is helping teachers get their Amazon wish lists fulfilled

While some celebrities use their Instagram accounts to flaunt their glamorous lifestyles, Kristen Bell is using hers to advocate for charitable causes.

Notably, every Friday, the actress has been sharing a #FeaturedTeacherFriday Instagram post, introducing her 11 million followers to a teacher. She posts a link to that teacher’s classroom Amazon wish list in her Instagram profile and encourages her followers to donate supplies to the teacher’s classroom.

Many of the teachers Bell chooses to feature work in low-income communities. According to Veronica Landa, a sixth and seventh grade Spanish teacher in New York who was featured on Bell’s Instagram in July, the supplies that she’s received from Bell’s followers have been life-changing. Within a few days of Bell’s post, Landa’s wishlist was almost completely fulfilled.

“I was speechless … I’ve always had an Amazon wish list with the things I wanted for my students but never did I believe this would happen,” she told Good Morning America.

Here’s what Bell posted about Landa and her students in her #FeaturedTeacherFriday Instagram post:

https://www.instagram.com/p/Bz08R1rn8Wi/

Among the items Landa received were Spanish books and a laptop that will allow her to track her student’s data electronically, rather than by hand.

“I’m really happy because it’ll really benefit my students and that’s my number one goal,” she added on Good Morning America. “I can change my entire curriculum and implement the books and everything else I’ve received.”

Most recently, Bell featured an Austin-based teacher named Lanie Matula, who says she personally purchases everything from supplies and backpacks to clothes and snacks for her low-income students.

Matula says she also provides acceptance, empathy, and kindness to all of her students and hopes to start a GSA (gay-straight alliance) at her school next year.

In the Instagram post, she writes, “It’s important to me that students have reassurance that it’s okay to be ‘different.’ This year I had a student tell me they were scared of life and who they were until they found out I was a lesbian. She said I made her realize that she wasn’t weird and that something wasn’t wrong with her. She said that reassurance saved her life. If I can save one child’s life, that’s enough for me.”

See the full post about Matula and her students below:

https://www.instagram.com/p/B0ZPvwmnBlO/

For anyone interested in donating to Mrs. Matula’s wish list, you can find it on Amazon.

Bell, who has two children, started her project highlighting teachers last September in a series she did with the hashtag #10featuredteachers.

We think it’s so great she’s using her influence to help teachers — and through them, kids and schools.