Media Pack

In November 2016, Millie asked people online to help find a very particular blue Tommee Tippee cup for her son, Ben.

The Search became #CupForBen and went viral. It was covered across major UK television news programmes, newspapers, radio and online media, then reported and shared around the world.

Thousands of people shared the story, searched cupboards, drawers, lofts and shops, contacted relatives and tried to find the exact cup.

In 2017, BBC Newsbeat named #CupForBen among 10 of Twitter’s biggest hashtags.

The story mattered because it showed that an object which appears ordinary to most people can be connected to comfort, communication, regulation, routine and safety for the person who relies on it.

LittleBlueCup helps families look for exact, difficult-to-replace things that may be worth almost nothing to anyone else, but mean everything to the person who needs them.

It may be a teddy, cup, blanket, toy, jumper, pair of pyjamas or another everyday object with almost no value to anybody else. To one person it may be irreplaceable.

Families begin with Self Search. If the right item is still missing, LittleBlueCup can help carry the Search further through a permanent Search page, carefully written stories, refreshes, community sharing and wider publicity.

Every LittleBlueCup Search remains free to the family. Millie sets its rules, makes the final decisions and remains accountable for how it is run, with a small volunteer team helping make the work possible.

Millie is LittleBlueCup’s founder, a parent and a builder with years of lived experience of disability, care and the systems families have to navigate.

When #CupForBen happened, Millie did not have the technical skills needed to build the platform LittleBlueCup would eventually require. Over the years she taught herself the skills needed to design and build increasingly complex websites, systems, workflows and apps.

LittleBlueCup is the clearest example of why: the project needed technology capable of remembering and organising things that no individual human could reliably hold in their head at scale.

Through Paper Armour, Millie also helps parents and carers understand paperwork and difficult systems, find reliable information, think through their options and work out where to go next.

That support is practical and informal: information, signposting, lived experience and sometimes simply giving somebody space to talk a problem through. It is not legal or professional advice.

Millie also builds practical apps, tools and systems around real-life problems, particularly where existing technology does not fit the people who need it.

LittleBlueCup is Millie’s project. Millie sets its rules, makes the final decisions and remains accountable for how it is run.

LittleBlueCup’s work is both human and technical. It includes the daily effort needed to keep individual Searches moving and the platform work that makes that effort reliable across many families.

That includes:

• running LittleBlueCup as a technology platform and managing current Searches
• helping families prepare clear Search information, stories and media
• promoting and refreshing Searches without letting older or quieter Searches disappear
• handling messages, moderation, offers, leads and updates
• growing social audiences, newsletters, community sharing and wider publicity
• giving volunteers clear shared work and keeping people informed
• improving the technology alongside the Searches themselves
• supporting parents through Paper Armour with information, signposting and practical help
• building useful apps, tools and resources around problems encountered in real life

Growing LittleBlueCup’s social channels matters because each additional genuine follower increases the network through which a Search can travel. The challenge is keeping those audiences interested enough to keep noticing and sharing, using varied Search rotation, refreshes, progress, success stories and useful updates rather than repetitive posts.

Newsletters are another part of the Search network. Every additional reader is another possible route to the person who recognises the item, knows somebody who has one or forwards the Search to somebody who eventually does.

LittleBlueCup and Still Fighting newsletters are intended to keep useful information and Search updates available without an informational paywall. Readers may choose to support the work financially or receive supporter extras where available, but the core information remains free.

Millie wants the help families receive through LittleBlueCup and her wider family-support work to remain free wherever reasonably possible. The challenge is making enough time for that work without passing the cost directly to families who are already dealing with enough.

Millie is building a mixed, sustainable model around voluntary member support through Patreon, paid products and tools, partnerships and appropriate commercial work, alongside income that may grow around social media, newsletters and wider content. The aim is not to turn families asking for help into customers. It is to generate enough income around the free work that the help itself can remain free wherever possible.

Sustainable income can fund hosting, software, AI tools, email, storage, media, moderation, Search management, refreshes, distribution, newsletters, staff and volunteer systems, development, practical resources and, most importantly, human time.

A sustainable model also allows Millie to earn a living and support her own family while spending more of her working time helping other families. Those goals are not in conflict.

For many disabled, autistic and neurodivergent people, a specific item may be connected to routine, regulation, communication, memory, identity and safety.

When that item is lost, damaged, discontinued or worn beyond use, the impact may be far greater than the object’s financial value suggests.

A different colour, texture, shape, lid, label, sound or version may not provide the same familiarity or function.

A Search going viral is valuable for one reason: more people see the item. The teddy, cup, blanket or toy may be sitting forgotten in a cupboard hundreds of miles away. The person who sees the Search may not have it, but may share it with somebody who knows somebody who does.

LittleBlueCup cannot manufacture virality. What it can do is build a system that gives every Search more chances to travel.

LittleBlueCup uses moderation, safer communication routes and reporting tools to reduce risk, organise Searches and respond when something goes wrong.

It cannot guarantee that every user, offer or interaction is genuine or safe.

Current public guidance strongly recommends that items are received before payment is sent.

For current coverage, please use:

• Millie
• she/her pronouns
• founder of LittleBlueCup
• parent, founder and builder
• LittleBlueCup
• #CupForBen for the original 2016 Search

Do not use historical biographical information as current information without checking with LittleBlueCup.

No current portrait of Millie is supplied in this media pack. Please do not use historical photographs as current portraits without explicit permission.