Conchita Wurst, who won the Eurovision Song Contest 2014 for Austria with her song Rise Like a Phoenix, has recorded a video message for the It Gets Better Project.

Founded in 2010, in response to a number of students taking their own lives as a result of school bullying, the It Gets Better Project has become an important global movement, generating over 50,000 user-created videos which have been viewed more than 50 million times. The mission of the It Gets Better Project is to communicate to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender youth around the world that things get better, and to create and inspire the changes required to make life better for them.

The It Gets Better Project has to date received submissions from politicians, activists, media personalities, organisations and celebrities – Conchita Wurst joins such leading names as President Barack Obama, Ellen DeGeneres and Ke$ha in submitting a video to the project.

Watch Conchita’s message below:

Conchita has previously spoken of having faced homophobic prejudice as a teenager:

Being a teenager, a gay teenager, in such a small village is not that much fun. I am part of the gay community and most gays have a similar story to mine

Support the It Gets Better project and take the pledge at www.itgetsbetter.org.  The project can also be found on Facebook and Twitter

Conchita Wurst won the 2014 Eurovision Song Contest for Austria with Rise Like a Phoenix, accumulating 290 points in the grand final. Watch her performance below:

Stay tuned to esctoday.com for the latest news on Austria and the Eurovision Song Contest.