Marilyn Monroe at 100: The People Finding Hope Behind the Hollywood Icon
From cancer survivors in Australia to a record-breaking gathering in Palm Springs, photographer Amy Stanford Gaskin explores why Marilyn Monroe continues to inspire people more than six decades after her death.
In South Australia, hundreds of people put on platinum-blonde wigs, white swimsuits and bright red lipstick to raise money for cancer research and support.
In Palm Springs, California, more than a thousand people dressed as Marilyn Monroe gathered earlier this year to break a world record and support the local LGBTQ+ community.
And in Lodi, Italy, an exhibition of photographs tells the stories of people for whom Monroe represents something far more personal than Hollywood glamour.
More than six decades after her death, Marilyn Monroe remains one of the most recognizable faces in popular culture. But for many of her admirers, her enduring appeal has surprisingly little to do with movie stardom.
Los Angeles photojournalist Amy Stanford Gaskin has spent six years exploring those connections. Her 168-page photography book, Marilyn Forever! Marilyn Monroe: A Symbol of Hope, documents people around the world who identify with Monroe's struggles, accomplishments and humanity.
The project is now featured at Italy's Festival della Fotografia Etica, where an exhibition at Palazzo Modignani continues through October 25, 2026.
The photographs raise a question that seems especially appropriate during the centennial of Monroe's birth: What makes an entertainer become a symbol of hope for people who never knew her?
A Discovery at Marilyn's Final Resting Place
Gaskin's project began during the COVID-19 pandemic, when she visited Monroe's crypt at Westwood Village Memorial Park in Los Angeles.
At a time when people were avoiding physical contact and carefully sanitizing everyday objects, she noticed something unexpected: fresh lipstick marks on the marble.
People were still visiting Marilyn.
Curiosity led Gaskin to begin photographing and interviewing visitors. What initially appeared to be ordinary celebrity devotion revealed a much more complicated collection of personal stories.
In an August 24, 2026 interview with Alethea Talks, she explained that the people she encountered were often more interested in Monroe's life experiences than her fame.
Some identified with her difficult childhood. Others admired her determination to succeed despite obstacles, her independence or her acceptance of people who felt excluded by society.
Gaskin began following those stories beyond the cemetery and eventually beyond the United States.
The resulting book is less a conventional biography of Marilyn Monroe than a photographic portrait of the communities that have formed around her memory.
In Australia, Marilyn Monroe Helps Fight Cancer
Perhaps the most striking example comes from South Australia.
Since 2014, the Marilyn Jetty Swim has brought together people dressed as Monroe to raise money for Cancer Council South Australia.
The event was founded by Sarah Tinney after her mother's experience with cancer inspired her to begin fundraising. What started as an unconventional idea became an annual tradition involving hundreds of participants.
The blonde wigs and white swimsuits give the gathering an unmistakably playful appearance, but the stories behind the costumes are frequently anything but lighthearted.
Consider Lee Deane.
According to Cancer Council South Australia's January 2026 profile, Deane participated in the inaugural 2014 event just five days after undergoing a mastectomy for breast cancer.
By early 2026, she had participated in every edition and was preparing for her thirteenth appearance.
Deane described how Cancer Council connected her with women who understood what she was experiencing during treatment. Participating in the Marilyn Jetty Swim became another source of community and encouragement.
The event traditionally involved swimming or paddling around Brighton Jetty. For 2026, however, organizers moved the gathering to Marion Outdoor Pool, where participants came together on February 8 for its first poolside edition.
The event's official fundraising resources page reports that participants have raised more than A$1.79 million for Cancer Council South Australia's prevention, research and support programs. That figure is the amount currently published on the fundraiser's own site.
The fundraiser also promotes body confidence and solidarity among people whose lives have been affected by cancer.
The connection to Monroe is not necessarily about resembling her physically. For some participants, dressing as Marilyn offers an opportunity to embrace confidence, strength and self-expression during an extraordinarily difficult period of life.
That distinction became central to Gaskin's photography.
Her subjects are not simply pretending to be someone famous. They are using a familiar cultural image to express something about their own experiences.
From Australia to Palm Springs: A Record-Breaking Centennial
The international reach of these Marilyn-inspired communities became even more apparent in Southern California this year.
On May 30, 2026, downtown Palm Springs filled with platinum-blonde wigs and white dresses inspired by Monroe's appearance in The Seven Year Itch.
The gathering was part of Marilyn 100, a five-day celebration marking what would have been her 100th birthday on June 1.
According to Guinness World Records and Palm Springs Pride's account, the event attracted 1,037 participants, establishing a new world record for the largest gathering of people dressed as Marilyn Monroe.
The previous record of 254 participants had been established in Australia in 2020 by the Marilyn Jetty Swim community.
Palm Springs Pride reported that Marilyn 100 raised $100,000 to support its programming, including efforts to keep its annual Pride festival free and accessible.
Although the California celebration and Australia's cancer fundraiser support different causes, they demonstrate a similar phenomenon.
People are taking an image that once represented Hollywood celebrity and transforming it into a way to build community, raise money and celebrate identities and experiences that matter to them.
Marilyn Monroe has become, in a sense, a shared language through which different communities tell their own stories.
The Woman Behind the Hollywood Image
Understanding that connection requires looking beyond the carefully constructed public image that made Monroe famous.
Born Norma Jeane Mortenson on June 1, 1926, Monroe experienced an unstable childhood that included periods in foster care and an orphanage.
She eventually became one of Hollywood's biggest stars, but her success did not eliminate the limitations placed on women in the entertainment industry.
Her intelligence and ambitions were frequently underestimated, and she grew increasingly determined to control the direction of her career.
In 1955, she established Marilyn Monroe Productions with photographer Milton Greene, challenging the traditional studio system at a time when actors, particularly women, had relatively little control over their professional lives.
The British Film Institute's 2026 film season, Marilyn Monroe: Self Made Star, which ran throughout June and July, examined this side of her career.
Rather than treating Monroe solely as a glamorous celebrity or tragic figure, the season emphasized her acting abilities, creative ambitions and role in shaping her public identity.
Those qualities help explain why people who have faced prejudice, exclusion, insecurity or personal adversity might find something recognizable in her story.
Her admirers are not necessarily identifying with the woman on the movie poster. They are connecting with the person they believe existed behind it.
Marilyn, Ella Fitzgerald and the Difference Between History and Legend
One frequently cited example of Monroe's character involves her support for jazz singer Ella Fitzgerald.
Fitzgerald credited Monroe with helping her secure a March 1955 engagement at the Mocambo nightclub on Hollywood's Sunset Strip.
Monroe's celebrity influence helped bring attention to the performance, and Fitzgerald later acknowledged the importance of her support.
Over time, however, the story acquired details that historical evidence does not support.
A popular version claims that Monroe forced the nightclub to abandon a prohibition against Black entertainers, making Fitzgerald its first Black performer.
Historical records show that Black entertainers, including Dorothy Dandridge and Joyce Bryant, had performed at the Mocambo before Fitzgerald. The club's history cannot be reduced to a claim that no Black artist had previously appeared on its stage.
Another version claims that a famous photograph of Monroe sitting beside Fitzgerald was taken during the Mocambo engagement. In fact, the photograph was taken at the Tiffany Club in Los Angeles on November 18, 1954.
Fitzgerald later recalled Monroe sitting in the front row throughout her Mocambo engagement. However, contemporary photographs and newspaper accounts place Monroe in New York during the March 1955 performances, including a documented appearance with Truman Capote on March 14, the night before Fitzgerald's opening.
West Hollywood History's examination of contemporary reporting helps separate the established events from the embellished legend.
None of those corrections erase Monroe's support for Fitzgerald.
They do, however, illustrate why understanding a historical figure requires more than repeating appealing anecdotes. The genuine story is meaningful without needing to be exaggerated.
An Exhibition That Looks at Marilyn From the Other Side of the Camera
Gaskin's work offers an interesting reversal of the traditional Marilyn Monroe photography exhibition.
Monroe was photographed by some of the twentieth century's most celebrated photographers, including Richard Avedon, Eve Arnold, Milton Greene and Bert Stern.
Their work helped create and preserve the image that millions of people recognize today.
Gaskin, however, turns the camera away from the celebrity and toward the people still responding to her image.
Her photographs were included in New York's Staley-Wise Gallery exhibition, Becoming Marilyn, which ran from June 18 through August 21, 2026.
Among the featured works were The Black Marilyn, a 2023 portrait of artist Saviyance Monroe, and She's a Symbol of Hope: 500 Marilyns!, a 2023 photograph documenting participants in the Australian fundraising community. The gallery's own catalog identifies the works and describes their subjects.
Those images appeared alongside photographs by artists who had helped define Monroe's visual legacy during her lifetime.
The juxtaposition is revealing. One group of photographs documents the creation of a celebrity image. Gaskin's photographs explore what happened after that image became part of the world's shared cultural memory.
Her project was shortlisted in both the Master and Spotlight categories of the 2026 World Report Award | Documenting Humanity. The award results have been announced: Carol Guzy won the Master category, while Chinky Shukla won Spotlight. Gaskin's project was a finalist, not a category winner.
Separately, the Festival della Fotografia Etica selected Marilyn Forever! for exhibition in its The Lives of Others section at Palazzo Modignani in Lodi, Italy.
That presentation emphasizes personal experiences, resilience and the ways people find meaning in someone else's life story.
Why Marilyn's Legacy Continues
Anniversary celebrations often focus on an artist's greatest achievements, most recognizable images or enduring commercial popularity.
Marilyn Monroe's centennial has certainly produced plenty of those tributes.
But the communities documented by Amy Stanford Gaskin suggest that another kind of legacy can be equally powerful.
For a cancer survivor in Australia, Monroe can represent the confidence to face another difficult day.
For participants at Palm Springs Pride, she can symbolize self-expression and belonging.
For someone who has experienced rejection or struggled to be taken seriously, her life can represent the possibility of overcoming circumstances that once seemed impossible.
These interpretations do not require Monroe to have been perfect, nor do they mean every story told about her is historically accurate.
They reveal something about the relationship between performers and the people who remember them.
A movie star can be admired for a performance. A cultural icon can become part of someone's identity. And occasionally, the image left behind becomes a tool for people trying to make their own lives, or someone else's, a little better.
A century after Marilyn Monroe was born, those connections continue to grow.
Perhaps that is the most interesting thing about Marilyn Forever!. It is a book about a woman who died in 1962, but its real subjects are people living today.
Explore the Project and Support the Communities
- Marilyn Forever! Learn more about Amy Stanford Gaskin's book and photography at amygaskin.com.
- Festival della Fotografia Etica: The exhibition at Palazzo Modignani in Lodi, Italy, runs through October 25, 2026. Visit the official exhibition page.
- Marilyn Jetty Swim: Discover the Australian fundraising community or support its cancer programs at themarilyns.org.
- Palm Springs Pride: Learn about the centennial record and community programs at pspride.org.
Image: Book cover of Marilyn Forever!, © Amy Stanford Gaskin. Supplied for editorial coverage of the book. Editorial note: This article was developed following a press announcement distributed by Reybee. Additional reporting draws on published material from Cancer Council South Australia, Guinness World Records, Palm Springs Pride, the British Film Institute, West Hollywood History, Staley-Wise Gallery, Alethea Talks and the Festival della Fotografia Etica.