Awareness ribbons are symbols meant to show support or raise consciousness for a cause. There are many different colors and patterns and each of them is associated with a different condition. An awareness ribbon is simply a short piece of colored ribbon that is folded in a loop. People wear them to show support for their cause.
Apart from wearing the actual ribbon to show support, you can also use other items with ribbons on them. Like apparel or stickers. It helps to mention specifically which cause you support because many awareness ribbons represent various diseases and conditions. One specific color can represent multiple causes. There are more awareness ribbons made every single day.
Below is the most comprehensive list I could make for you that includes chronic illness, mental health, birth defect, and other medial causes. Please let me know if something is missing or if you've found another color than listed in this article.
Pink awareness ribbon
Let's start with the most well known awareness ribbon of all. The pink awareness ribbon. It is mostly know for breast cancer awareness, but did you know it also represents birth parents, nursing mothers, and women's health?
pink awareness ribbon
The pink ribbon represents:
- Breast cancer
- Birth parents
- Nursing mothers
- Women's health
peach awareness ribbon
The peach ribbon represents:
- Endometrial Cancer
- Uterine Cancer
- Vaginal Cancer
Red awareness ribbon
The red awareness ribbon stands for heart conditions, but also for a lot more. Under the red ribbon I also class the burgundy awareness ribbon, cause there are both different shades of red.
Red awareness ribbon
The red ribbon represents:
- Amyothrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS)
- Aplastic Anemia,
- Congenital Heart Defects
- Congenital Heart Disease
- Congestive Heart Failure
- Cogan's Syndrome
- Evan's Syndrome (ES)
- Heart disease
- High blood pressure
- Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV/AIDS)
- Microscopic Polyangiitis (MPA)
- Neutropenia
- Polycythemia
- Thrombotic Thrombocytopenic Purpura (TTP)
- Vasculitis
Burgundy awareness ribbon
The burgundy ribbon represents:
- AV Malformation
- Burn victims
- Thalassemia
- Chronic Migraines (also purple ribbon with red stripe)
- Hereditary Hemochromatosis (HH)
- Meningococcal Meningitis
- Antiphospholipid Antibody Syndrome
- Post Polio Syndrome (PPS)
- Amyloidosis
- Marfan syndrome
- Sickle Cell Anemia
- Multiple Myeloma
Purple awareness ribbon
This color seems to be used for the most causes. The list of conditions that are represented by the purple awareness ribbon is quite long. The most well known are Fibromyalgia, Lupus, chronic pain, and Crohn's disease.
Purple awareness ribbon
The purple ribbon represents:
- Acute intermittent Porphyria (AIP)
- ADHD/ADD
- Alzheimer's disease
- Chiari malformation
- Chronic cluster headaches
- Chronic pain
- Chronic relapsing inflammatory optic neuropathy (CRION)
- Crohn's Disease
- Cystic fibrosis (CF)
- Epilepsy
- Eosinophilic Diseases
- Fibromyalgia
- Fowler’s Syndrome
- Hashimoto's disease
- Hidradentitis
- Hidradenitis suppurativa (HS)
- Immune Thrombocytopenic Purpura (ITP)
- Lupus
- Mast cell activation disorder (MCAD)
- Migraines
- Tardive dyskinesia
- Raynauds
- Sarcoidosis
- Sjögren's Syndrome
- Myofacial pain sydrome
- Neuropathy
- Pancreatitis
- Ulcerative Colitis (UC)
- Vitiligo
Blue awareness ribbon
The blue awareness ribbon is a popular color too. There are several shades of blue that I will all list in this section. While periwinkle is exactly in between blue and purple, I'm listing it in the blue section. The most common causes that are represented by the blue awareness ribbon are child abuse awareness and ME/CFS
Blue awareness ribbon
The blue ribbon represents:
- Arthritis
- Ankylosing Spondylitis (AS)
- Bursitis
- Child abuse
- Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS)
- Colon cancer
- Cyclic Vomiting Syndrome (CVS)
- Epstein-Barr Virus (EBV)
- Guillian-barre Syndrome
- Juvenile Arthritis (JA)
- Myositis
- Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (ME)
- Osteoarthritis
- Pompe Disease
- Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome (POTS)
- Primary Immunodeficiency (PID)
- Syringomyelia
- Restless Legs Syndrome (RLS)
- Ichthyosis
- Transverse Myelitis (TM)
Light blue awareness ribbon
The light blue ribbon represents:
- Behcet's disease
- Chronic illness
- Cushing Syndrome
- Men's health
- Prostate Cancer
- Pale blue awareness ribbon
The pale blue ribbon represents:
- Achalasia
- Addison’s Disease
- Graves Disease
- Lipedema
- Lymphedema
- Thyroid disease
Denim blue awareness ribbon
The denim blue ribbon represents:
- Rare Diseases
The denim jeans awareness ribbon represents the more than 7,000 small rare disease communities around the world. Rare disease include for example: cold urticaria, DRESS syndrome, Alpha Tryptasemia, and much more.
Navy awareness ribbon
The navy blue ribbon represents:
- Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome (ARDS)
- Fibromuscular Dysplasia (FMD)
Periwinkle awareness ribbon
The periwinkle ribbon represents:
- Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease (GERD)
- Gastric Cancer
- Eating Disorders
- Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS)
- Pulmonary hypertension (PH)
- Small Intestine Cancer
- Stomach Cancer
Green awareness ribbon
The green awareness ribbon has various shades, just like the blue one. I decided to class teal and turquoise, which are in-between blue and green, under the green awareness ribbon. This color represents organ transplant, kidney and liver diseases, and much more as you can see in the below list. The teal awareness ribbon is a popular color for mental health awareness like Generalized anxiety disorder and PTSD.
Green awareness ribbon
The green ribbon represents:
- Adrenal Insufficiency
- Autoimmune Disease
- Cerebral Palsy (CP)
- Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD)
- Depression
- Devic's Disease
- Gastroparesis
- Mitochondrial disease (MD)
- Neuromyelitis Optica (NMO)
- Primary Sclerosing Cholangitis (PSC)
- Spinal Fusion
- Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI)
- Kidney transplant
- Liver transplant
- Heart transplant
- Lung transplant
- Organ transplant
- Bone marrow transplant
Light green awareness ribbon
The light green ribbon represents:
- Celiac Disease
- Human Papilloma Virus (HPV)
Lime green awareness ribbon
The lime green ribbon represents:
- Lyme disease
- Muscular dystrophy (MD)
- Lymphoma
- Spinal cord disorders (SCI)
- Psychosis
- Postpartum depression
- Auditory processing disorder
Turquoise awareness ribbon
The turqoise ribbon represents:
- Addiction Recovery
- Dysautonomia
Teal awareness ribbon
The teal ribbon represents:
- Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD)
- Interstitial cystitis (IC)
- Myasthenia Gravis (MG)
- Polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS)
- Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome/Disorder (PTSD)
- Scleroderma
- Trigeminal Neuralgia (TN)
- Anaphylaxis
- Anxiety Disorders
- Dissociative Identity Disorder
- Interstitial Cystitis
- MRSA
- Myasthenia Gravis
- Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder
- Obsessive-Compulsive Personality Disorder
- Occipital Neuralgia
- Ovarian Cancer
- Panic Disorder
- Polycystic Kidney Disease
- Social Anxiety
- Stress Disorders
- Tourette Syndrome
Orange Awareness Ribbon
The orange awareness ribbon represents causes like ADHD, CRPS and Multiple Sclerosis. There are also various two-colored ribbon with the color orange, but those will be listed in the multiple color awareness ribbon section.
The orange ribbon represents:
- ADD
- Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)
- Autoinflammatory Disorders
- Complex Regional Pain Syndrome
- COPD
- Kidney Cancer
- Leukemia
- Multiple Sclerosis (MS)
- Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy (RSD)/ Complex Regional Pain SyndromeCRPS
- Self-Harm
- Self-Injury
Yellow Awareness Ribbon
The yellow awareness ribbon represents many different types of cancer, but also important causes like endometriosis. The below listed causes are all represented by the yellow awareness ribbon.
The yellow ribbon represents:
- Adenosarcoma
- Bladder Cancer
- Bone Cancer
- Endometriosis
- Epithelioid Sarcoma
- Ewing Sarcoma
- Microcephaly
- Myxoid Liposarcoma
- Obesity
- Osteosarcoma
- Sarcoma
- Spina Bifida
- Suicide Prevention
White Awareness Ribbon
This category of awareness ribbon are neutral colors, different types of whites.
White Awareness Ribbon
The white ribbon represents:
- Bone Cancer
- Bone Diseases
- Hypoxic Ischemic Encephalopathy (HIE)
- Osteoporosis
- Severe combined immunodeficiency (SCID)
Pearl Awareness Ribbon
The pearl ribbon represents:
- Bronchial Cancer
- Bronchiectasis
- Chronic Lung Disease
- Emphysema
- Lung Cancer
- Lung Disease
- Mesothelioma
- Waldenstrom Macroglobulinemia
Ivory Awareness Ribbon
The ivory ribbon represents:
- Spinal Muscular Dystrophy (SMD)
Cream Awareness Ribbon
The cream ribbon represents:
- Degenerative disk disease (DDD)
- Spinal Cord Injuries (SCI)
- Spinal Diseases and Disorders
Gray Awareness Ribbon
Gray Awareness Ribbon
The gray ribbon represents:
- Allergies
- Asthma
- Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD)
- Brain Cancer
- Brian Tumors
- Diabetes (mostly represented by a blue circle)
- Encephalitis
- Glioblastoma
- Hyperglycemia
- Hypoglycemia
- Parkinsons
- Personality Disorders
Silver Awareness Ribbon
The silver ribbon represents:
- Charcot-Marie-Tooth Disease (CMT)
- Encephalitis
- Parkinsons
- Schizophrenia
Black Awareness Ribbon
The black ribbon represents:
- Delayed sleep phase disorder (DSPD)
- Hypersomnia
- Insomnia
- Melanoma
- Narcolepsy
- Primary Biliary Cholangitis (Primary Biliary Cirrhosis)
- Sleep disorders
Zebra Awareness Ribbon
The zebra striped awareness ribbon represents a bunch of rare diseases. While the official awareness ribbon for rare diseases is denim blue, there are several that have their own zebra striped awareness ribbon.
The zebra ribbon represents:
-
Adhesion related disorder (ARD)
- Ehlers Danlos Syndrome(s) (EDS)
- Hypermobility Syndrome
- Primary Immunodeficiency Diseases (PIDD)
- Specific Antibody Deficiency (SAD)
- Stiff Person Syndrome (SPS)
Multiple Color Awareness Ribbon
Green and Blue Awareness Ribbon
- Idiopathic intracranial hypertension (IIH)
- Idiopathic Hypersomnia (IH)
- Neurofibromatosis (NF)
Purple and Light Blue Awareness Ribbon
- Mixed Connective Tissue Disease (MCTD)
Purple and Teal Awareness Ribbon
- Nonepileptic Seizures (NES)
Purple and Teal Awareness Ribbon
- Schizencephaly
Purple and Yellow Awareness Ribbon
- Autoimmune Hepatitis (AIH)
Red and Blue Awareness Ribbon
- Pulmonary Fibrosis (PF)
- Colitis
Silver and Gold Awareness Ribbon
- Meniere’s Disease
Two-tone Blue with Water Droplet Awareness Ribbon
- Hydrocephalus
Salmon Awareness Ribbon
- Adult Onset Still’s Disease (AOSD)
Purple, Teal and Green Awareness Ribbon
- Medullary Sponge Kidney (MSK)
Blue and Purple Stripes Awareness Ribbon
- Mixed Connective Tissue Disease (MCTD)
Red, White and Black Awareness Ribbon
- Pernicious Anaemia (PA)
Orange and Orchid Awareness Ribbon
- Psoriasis
Dark Blue, Orange and Orchid Awareness Ribbon
- Psoriatic Arthritis (PsA)
Blue and Purple Awareness Ribbon
- Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA)
Purple with Snowflakes Awareness Ribbon
- Sarcoidosis
Purple and Turquoise Awareness Ribbon
- Sphincter of Oddi Dysfunction (SOD)
Blue and Yellow Awareness Ribbon
- Thoracic Outlet Syndrome (TOS)
This list is made by using different online sources (the ones mentioned below and website s of the organisations for all the various health conditions) and with the help of people who live with the illness or condition themselves.
Main online sources used:
Wikipedia: List of awareness ribbons
Laurie Finch
April 25, 2023
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