J.K. Rowling in conversation with Eddie Redmayne at Carnegie Hall (full 27 minutes) 

Credence Barebone is the classic example of institutionalised children. He was abused and starving for love, and tragically turned to violence when left heartbroken and alone.

I was expecting Fantastic Beasts stuff, but Rowling had my full attention.

"It's probably the thing in which I am most proud". That sentence carries a LOT of weight when it is coming from someone that created an empire.

Children kept in orphanages is, I think, the backbone of the Harry Potter series. Yes, we are mortified with Voldemort, and his character is one we absolutely hate. But if we come to think of it, what happened to Tom Riddle (Voldemort) is the result of children who were disconnected to parental care and support. He is in fact a pitiable character, who turned to seeking power and immortality to get noticed. As a young Tom Riddle, Voldemort had a troubled childhood - he was unloved, unlike Harry who was loved though his adoptive family could only tolerate him. I think Jo made that point clear, that during the final Wizarding War, Hogwarts fought as a family, not merely students and teachers. The Death Eaters merely fought but with fear, resentment, and vain ambition. Ah, it's so hard telling all, but Harry Potter is more than just a story of witches and wizards and conjuring spells. It's a multilayered story that talks deep human issues and concerns.

I'm so very glad to see that Jo is doing her best to use her influence to make the world a better place.

Oh my god, I just realized... Credence's story... I just got really teary-eyed. Credence's story had already shaken me up quite a bit as I'm quite close to the issue of child abuse, but now... 8 million children, good god.

When I was 13 years old, I was diagnosed with Aspergers Syndrome, a high functioning part of the Autistic Spectrum, and my mum is the strongest most hard working and loving woman you ill ever meet! I love her with all my heart and I'm so grateful for her, I'm grateful that she was strong enough to ignore the thought of Institutionalizing me or putting me in an orphanage, even though I was a handful growing up, she still loved me and wanted me and loved me because that's what a loving parent does, I know many parents to almost all parents across the world love their children and don't wish to be taken away from them, but they feel they have no choice, and now, as I think more and more about it, Jo was telling the story of all those children in Harry Potter and yes, I know many people already deciphered that, but it's taken me a while to get round to that and she was basically saying how Harry was a lost, broken and abused boy who was saved and taken to a place where he was loved and cherrished (even if he did run into trouble along the way!) Lumos is an important cause that, even if you don't have the money to donate or the qualifacations to work for them, you can get the word spreading and limit the amount of children going into these institutions and get them to loving homes and families and limit the amount of crime, prostitution and deaths that are these children could go into I have the privilege to spread the word via the internet and social media, if you have that privilege, please take advantage of it and spread the word :)

Came for Eddie, when it was finished I left with a mindset to help lumos

Eddie Redmayne is amazing. I mean, I knew already that JK Rowling was working for this cause, Lumos is a brilliant idea, JK is a goddess. But the fast that Eddie joined just for this interview is so nice. It gives more publicity to Lumos ! Fans came here for Fantastic Beasts stuff but I want to think they stayed for this cause :) Great video !

Eddie Redmayne is so cute! I wish him the best of luck with his child!

I am adopted and was in a catastrophic orphanage until being 14 months old. The adoption gave me a life! I am so grateful to Terre des Hommes in my case. LUMOS does an amazing job. Donated! xxx

Am I the only one that at the orphanage part thought about Tom Riddle?

My right ear loves the sound LOL

I wish we could fix everything. Child mortality, poverty, hunger, inequality, disease: there are so many issues that need our help.

Thank you Jo.

I love this woman. greetings from Brazil. amazing speech and we need to think about this issue everyday and try to change minds to change the world.

This.....this is so important

I HEAR PEOPLE DON'T LIKE NEWT AND THAT IS JUST DEVASTATING I LOVE HIM AS A CHARACTER SO SO MUCH 😭

This is really beautiful! Jo is such a great and humble person. I really love her. She changed many lives by creating the potter stories (and now fantastic beasts). But also on the side, she does so many other good things for the world. I will support her in any way i can! It's just such a good feeling seeing someone who cares... :-)

Came for fantastic beasts.. stayed for jk's powerful words

Eddie suits are always top notch

OMG, Eddie is such a cinnamon bun!! Who else agrees?

Well, I admire Jo for taking a bold step from writing phenomenal work to effecting a social justice movement especially for children. Well, I guess all writers should be.

damn Eddie's suit does things to me...

It's incredible how several dark characters emerge from orphanages in the potter books/movies as though embodying Rowling's message

i had to work in an orphanage as part of our community programme for my master's degree and i must say, this woman sitting on that stage thousands of miles away is not saying one word wrong. everything she's saying about kids in orphanages is true. how they suffer, how their outlook on life changes and how susceptible they are to bad things. not to mention the corruptness that ensues in name of these voiceless children. i hope lumos achieves it's goal of ending institutionalization cuz we need to come up with better solution for such things rather than settling for whatever is there. i wish jkr the very best in achieving that and if they ever come here, i'd sign up to help in a jiffy !

Good for you J.K... Inspired. 💫

So happy to have been in attendance for this!

I have a friend from an orfanage here in Spain. She went there when she was around 4 while her mother was still alive. Se is in her twenties, and still has scars. The kids she shared class and grew up with, closest people to her most of them died of illnes, drugs or suicide. The rest still have issues. She was lucky to get a family to support her, and later on adopt her oficially... I haven't seen her in a while, i'd like to wish her luck.

My left ear feels left alone..

she's right... I mean do you know what would have happened if Tom Riddle wasn't placed in a orphanage?!

I love the fact that you can see she is very well informed. I had the chance to look into child orphanage system in my country which IS Czech Republic and the situation with little babies is a big problem here. The children are just behaving totally differently than they should. Just lying there quietly because if they cry it just doesn´t get them anywhere. There are so many babies in these institutions and very little staff. It´s still better than the baby being left in a garbage bin somewhere but not by much. The stuff is underpaid and everything is just falling apart. Important issue to talk about indeed.

She's an amazing woman and so inspiring!

Please come to Puerto Rico and introduce these ideas to the public. I think it's fantastic.

I was there! ❤️

I can agree with Jo on all she was pointing out. As of being an adopted kid with a loving family, I wouldn't be able to understand about the life of an orphan, but it would be nice for the children in institutions to have a family and not end up with harsh lives.

I think it's really important to talk about the impact of "voluntourism". Voluntourism is basically when people, usually young people, go to a country like Romania or Uganda and volunteer at the very orphanages that are making a profit from the volunteers that usually have to pay money as a "donation" to volunteer. These young people think their doing so much good by going to a poor country and playing with children, they think it's cool that they get to travel and it looks good on their CVs, but in reality they are feeding into a system that is profiting off of tearing families apart. Sooooo so many people I know in my community participate in this, I wish the harm of voluntourism was more known. It's also a rather difficult subject to talk about because often people get defensive and think you are just trying to be negative towards their "good deeds" in these poor underdeveloped countries.

I was never put in an 'orphanage' but I've been in and out of foster homes and boarding homes throughout my childhood. The system can be a harsh place. I'm very glad that jk is aware and fighting the abuse and neglect that can occur in these institutions etc

Definitely plan to donate when I get my paycheck.

I love this woman!

Amazing charity. Thank god for compassionate, educated people like Jo Rowling that can see through the corruption and change it. So shocking to think that so much charity money actually supports suffering, all because of greed. If you can't find the time to research if you're donating to the right places, the donate to Lumos. At least we know we have a charity we can trust

I think she knows the kind of love and loyalty she commands and has commanded from her fans for many years as they came up from children to young adults. If she does this right -- and it looks as though she is committed to doing it with a clear and humble understanding of the guidance she herself needs to accomplish it -- she is positioned like very few others to make a success of it. All power to her. She is dead right, by the way, about the make-or-break power of an intimate nuclear family upbringing and the huge potential damage institutionalized childrearing can do. I can recommend to anyone that they track the research all the way back to the WWII era, when the effects of warehousing war orphans and displaced children began to be studied by John Bowlby. If you are interested, start with the quite good Wikipedia article on Attachment Theory (Bowlby, Ainsworth) and let it take you as far as you like. The research is ongoing -- another strong branch of it goes under the name Developmental Psychopathology (Daniel Cicchetti, and many others).

My left ear is dying.

i know people say this a lot about famous women but i literally want her to be my mom. i am not joking. adopt me please

he is sooooooo sweet 😍 he is so adorable

I knew Lumos did amazing work and that Jo gives countless energy to a lot of other good causes aside from Lumos, but knowing the specifics... I strongly believe that Jo Rowling and Joanna Lumley need to sit down and sort out some kind of mega-plan for the respective activist work between them (which would be dozens of charities, by the way). It would SERIOUSLY be step in the right direction for a better world.

I am not in a position to donate but good luck with lumos J.K and I subscribed.

HE'S SO PRECIOUS

I hope there will be an alternative where the government helps families instead of having their child go to orphanages 😢

The audio is only in one side.

Always amazed by this incredible woman and Eddie

Why is Eddie Redmayne sooooo handsome???💞💞

Voldemort grew up in an orphanage and never got his mothers love. But Harry first got his mothers love for a year and that's the reason Harry didn't turn out like Voldemort.

I have a real soft spot for children and their wellbeing. I am really proud of this charity and now I know where to send my money.

Jo is such a WONDERFUL WONDERFUL person... Such an inspiration... Loved this interview...

As a gay 16 year old person I feel strongly for this as I can't have children that are of me a my partner but this has opened my eyes to what I can do to help

I have hiccups I'm fangirling so much!

I never get to understand why Eddie always has such a weird-strange-uncomfortable-looking sitting pose :''D

When JK said "But~!! I bring you, hope!" that was frickin adorable. This woman is amazing.

Eddie is sooo cute and awkward ❤❤❤

Hess's adoorabbleee😍😍

I work for an orphanage in a developing country. We're a Christian orphanage, primary school and secondary school (which kids from outside the orphanage can also attend) in a Muslim country, and we provide kids who otherwise wouldn't have a chance with a good education, also introducing them to society around them so the Muslims see them as people, rather than just hated Christians. Meanwhile, we've had our prayer license revoked so we can no longer use our church, except as a dinner hall (where we're not allowed to pray before we eat) and the government is trying to make life as difficult for us as possible. We're not at all the "institution" Lumos makes all orphanages out to be. Our kids are loved and well-cared for, and once they've finished school and further education, they go back to their families and look after them, getting them out of the neverending circle of poverty they were trapped in. If we don't take in these kids, they'll stay poor for the rest of their (probably short) lives, because society doesn't accept them and they're denied jobs and education.

I have the greatest and most deepest respect for J.K Rowling. She is an example in my life of pure kindness and the ability to never give up.

I might get my school to donate to Lumos, this is the best sort of cause!

is anyone only getting audio in one side of the speaker?

It was literally stunning to hear about problems with institutionalization. It was the problem that I'd never even considered as a problem!!

As many of you, I thought it was a "Fantastic Beasts" interview but this was nevertheless captivating! Love listening to her talk

Eddie's feet.. haha cute

Joanne Rowling é aquele tipo de pessoa que dá orgulhoso ser fã.

Thank you for moving attention in this direction

.... Uh what the deal with the audio? on headphones it only works on one side, (I checked its not the headphones tried 2 pair and other videos on youtube it is the video)

This makes me want to join a NGO when I graduate from college.

I just love love this woman. She is amazing.

My left ear really enjoyed this video!

Insanely great talk ! Thank you Jo and Mr. "Newt"

Help turn this from Lumos to Lumos Maxima by donating

My right ear:🔇 My left ear:🔊

What an extraordinary woman!

So sad from start to end!! This is happening but the world still thinks gay people being parent is not good!! 8 million children out there looking for loving parents!! but gay people cannot biologically have children but there are 8 million straight people who have children who can biologically leave their children alone! Can some please help me with the math?

Omg she just illuminated something i had no idea was such a big problem....she's truly amazing

your earphones are not broken, trust me

This deserves more views. Such an inspiring angle of viewing the development of human and humanity. This reminds me of the group project I tagged along last semester on animal domestication where it talked about the possible relationship between a prolonged demanding/dependent infancy period and tameness and intelligence... I'm grateful for my loving parents that have always adored me, shaping my brain and heart.

How about reducing birthrates?. Parents can't afford to raise their numerous children.

This made me cry tears of joy

Thanks for sharing.

Lumos reminds me a little bit of the work that Next Generation Nepal is trying to do.

she is the most profound speak/writer/enthusiast/ my idol... Rowling, you are my idol

We all love Eddie

I wanna meet Jo, snce I was 11 and now 16 years later, her Harry Potter books changed my life and taught me to love reading and tell stories through art even more.

I some times wonder if this woman has a time turner.... She is so ahead of us. Of time. She is an absolutely amazing!

These two can make a great couple

I remember this part where Dumbledore is talking to Harry (an orphan of war) about why it was so important for him to go back to his aunt and uncle because although it was hard and unpleasant his mother's blood would protect him there and how Harry (with difficulty) became such a kind boy while Tom in the orphanage became so resentful to muggles. Maybe if his uncles had lumus Harry would have grown in a better environment but at the same time the fact that his aunt "welcomed" him protected him for many years. it is also imply that his aunt and uncle treated him better before he started to show his magical abilities making his hair grow over night, so maybe if he were a squib he would have receive more love and he would turn out to be as his cousin (ew), Which Petunia would have considered a win over her sister. Anyhow that's speculations but you can see the interest of JK about this subject from the very begging, her no-so-good relationship with orphanages, a kid staying with his no-so-good part of the family as a lesser evil and love as the most powerful kind of magic, the only thing that could protect a kid from harm.

My right ear thanks you

SHE IS JUST THE BEST ROLE MODEL FOR EVERYONE !!!

No living being should live in a cage, or other terrible conditions; humans, animals. Not natural, not kind, not ethical- it's dreadful. Thank God there is help for them all- children, animals... All rescues are Angelic.

1 dislike was from John Key.

My left ear was really amazed by this video.

I love Lumos! This is a charity worth investing in :)

This woman is amazing

People can bang on her writing all they want (but can I just say Harry Potter is life changing and her writing is fantastic, but everyone has different tastes) but you have to admit that she’s intelligent, generous, and an amazing humanitarian