‘Unseen Housewives,’ a fake reality show, highlights the real problem of child marriage in the U.S.

Relatively few people realize child marriage is a significant problem in the U.S. It remains legal in 43 states (and was legal in all 50 until 2018), and nearly 300,000 underage girls were married in the U.S. since 2000, with 86% marrying adult men.

“To this day, a girl as young as 10 can be given away by her parents and forced to marry a grown man,” said Fraidy Reiss, a forced-marriage survivor turned activist and the founder and executive director of the advocacy group Unchained At Last. “She is raped. Abused. She loses her freedom. And she isn’t old enough to file for divorce.”

To sound the alarm on this human rights issue, Area 23, an IPG Health company, went the route of parody—creating a trailer for a fake show called “Unseen Housewives.” Except the drama here is a little different than what you’ll see on Bravo.

“This was an important project to our team and one that we were honored to play even a small part in,” said Tim Hawkey, chief creative officer of Area 23. “There is a large part of the U.S. population that is unaware of the child marriage crisis. Juxtaposing the issue against reality TV—something that Americans know all too well—was an interesting concept to explore and ultimately brought to life the powerful messages and stories in a meaningful way.”

The trailer premiered at the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women. It then rolled out online, supported by a social campaign the child bride “housewives” become influencers, sharing their stories in the 43 states where child marriage is still legal. See more at UnseenHousewives.com.