Hi! I’m Priya, president and co-founder of One in Five. Harrison and I are so glad that you’ve found our site, whether you got here through our socials, your friends, or random Google searches. I’m super excited to be launching this nonprofit with my best friend, and we hope that we’ll be able to make an impact and grow this initiative.
One in Five is an idea that I’ve been cultivating for years. I’ve always been the “therapist friend”, so I’ve had my share of encounters with the complexities of mental health. I always had an idea in the back of my head to try and solve the emerging issue that was becoming paramount for my generation. However, there was a catalyst event that pushed me to finally begin this project.
At thirteen, someone very dear to me committed suicide. (It sounds like a brutal way to put it, but the first step to removing stigma is calling it what it is: suicide.) That was only the first time that I encountered the fatality that an unhealthy mental state could inflict. While it isn’t my place to recount every situation I’ve experienced, I’ve since seen enough incidents to understand that this is a very real, scary issue. As someone who has both been powerless and counted on to take action, I know that it is debilitating to be involved in any way.
Fatality is a concept that is incredibly difficult to consider, especially at a young age; however, my history with mental health and suicide is only a microcosm of what our generation is experiencing. Our nonprofit name, One in Five, refers to the statistics of U.S. adults who will experience a mental illness at some point in their lifetimes. That’s a pretty horrifying number. However, because we know that many mental health issues begin during adolescence, we’re trying to attack this issue at its root.
If we can cultivate a community of young people who are conscious and accepting of their emotional well-being and do their best to better their emotional state, maybe we can eventually make a world where mental health is treated just like physical health. Harrison and I decided that the best way to get people, especially adolescents, to be conscious of their mental health was through a widely-used, but little-known therapeutic device – art.
Now, I’m sure you don’t want to hear us get into why art is therapeutic and helps us better our emotional state again (we’ve got paragraphs all over the place if you haven’t checked out the rest of our site yet). However, the fact remains that it’s an amazing way of expressing your emotions; as our About page will show you, even the greats used art as a way of expressing their emotions. We hope that this therapeutic device won’t intimidate you, but will instead encourage you to express your emotional state, to whatever extent you’re comfortable with; it’s the first step toward bettering your overall emotional and mental well-being.
Keep in mind that Harrison and I are still learning how to run this thing; there are going to be plenty of glitches, issues, and low-quality podcast videos. Another note: We’re not art therapists, and are not claiming to be; we’re just kids, trying to help other kids and make a difference.
We’re going to continue to do our best for everyone involved, and we’d be so happy to get feedback from you. Please reach out with any questions, concerns, comments, or even just to say hi! We’re excited to hear from you and see all the change you can create.
Thanks for reading all of this, Changemakers. I promise I’ll edit my writing down next time. Here’s to a successful launch, and thanks to everyone who made this possible!
All love,
Priya Antony | One in Five