We are proud to announce Paralympic champion, world-record-holding swimmer, and disability advocate Anastasia Pagonis as our newest official Cybersmile ambassador.
We first worked with Anastasia in 2023 as part of our WORDS HURT IRL campaign with Urban Decay, where she spoke candidly about her personal experiences of cyberbullying and the abuse she receives online. Today, we are incredibly proud to welcome Anastasia to the Cybersmile team as an official ambassador.
As part of her new role, Anastasia will support our work to tackle online abuse, promote digital wellbeing, and help us build a more accessible internet where people feel safe and confident to be themselves.
A champion in and out of the pool
Anastasia began losing her sight at the age of 11 and was almost completely blind by 14. Just three years later, she was representing the United States at the Tokyo Paralympic Games. Competing in the S11 classification for athletes with the highest level of visual impairment, Anastasia won gold in the 400m freestyle, breaking her own world record on the way to becoming Paralympic champion. She also took bronze in the 200m individual medley.
A year later, she became a three-time world champion, winning gold in the 100m freestyle, 400m freestyle, and 200m individual medley at the 2022 World Para Swimming Championships. Anastasia returned for her second Paralympic Games in Paris in 2024, reaching three individual finals and finishing fourth in the 400m freestyle.
Away from the pool, Anastasia has built a global online community by doing something that takes a lot of courage on the internet: being authentically herself. Her powerful content gives people an honest window into life as a young blind woman. Sometimes it is educational, sometimes it challenges assumptions about disability, sometimes it is funny, and sometimes it is simply Anastasia living her life.
By speaking openly about blindness, mental health, accessibility, and the realities of navigating both the physical and digital worlds with a disability, Anastasia has helped to challenge stereotypes while empowering others to feel more comfortable in their own skin.
The internet has been such a huge part of my life. I know what it feels like to have strangers question who you are or try to tear you down because you're different. That's why becoming a Cybersmile ambassador means so much to me. I want people of all ages to know they never need to make themselves smaller to make somebody else comfortable. Be loud about who you are, protect your peace, block the hate, and keep going. I'm so excited for what we can do together.
Anastasia Pagonis, Cybersmile Ambadassor
When Anastasia previously worked with Cybersmile, she spoke openly about the online abuse she experiences, including people questioning whether she was really blind. Rather than allowing that to silence her, she has continued showing up, sharing her personal experiences and using her platform to help others. This incredible resilience and determination are among the many reasons we are so proud to have her representing Cybersmile.
Making the internet a place for everyone
Anastasia joins Cybersmile at a time when the way we experience the internet is changing rapidly. Social media can give people friendship, community, education, and a sense of belonging. For people who feel different or underrepresented in the world around them, finding that community online can be life-changing.
But those same spaces can expose people to bullying, harassment, discrimination, and relentless judgment. Creating a safer internet means more than responding when something goes wrong. It means building a culture in which empathy becomes the norm, difference is celebrated, and people think about the human being on the other side of the screen.
Anastasia has already shown millions of people what it means to refuse to let other people define you. She is fearless, funny, honest, and completely herself, and that authenticity is exactly what the world needs more of. Together, we want to help people feel able to show up online as themselves, enjoy what our connected world has to offer, and know that they belong there.
Scott Freeman, CEO, The Cybersmile Foundation
Her appointment strengthens our global network of ambassadors who use their voices and platforms to help make the internet safer and more inclusive.
We already know that we make a great team. Now, as an official Cybersmile ambassador, we can take that work even further by challenging stereotypes, starting important conversations, and reminding people everywhere that nobody should have to change who they are to feel safe or welcome online.
Welcome to Cybersmile, Anastasia! We are proud to have you with us.