each voice

In this episode, I am joined by Isaac Lara, a youth wellbeing activist, lived experience researcher, and peer support advocate. He talks about the importance of youth in advocacy spaces and provides valuable advice for youth looking to get involved in both research and advocacy spaces. He discusses the connection between advocacy and research while sharing his own experiences and journey coming into the mental health research space.

instagram: @eachvoice

music: massobeats

In this episode, I’m joined by Sophie Szew, a youth mental health advocate. She shares her journey being denied treatment while struggling with an eating disorder, which later on led to her being institutionalized. She talks about poetry as an outlet for her emotions as well as a means for expression on social injustices, serving as a way to “dismantle hierarchies” in society. Sophie talks about how she was able to get involved in policy work to address the root cause of the mental health crisis and gives valuable advice and insights for anyone looking to get involved in this realm of advocacy. Listen now!

instagram: @eachvoice

music: massobeats

This episode, I’m joined by Sedra Alshamaly, a teenage advocate and the co-founder of Elegant Art, a social enterprise focused on aiding refugee children through art. She discusses her heartbreaking experiences as a child experiencing war and destruction in her home country, leading her to flee to a different country with her family. She talks about her path from living as a refugee to becoming an advocate for others going through similar situations as she did. Sedra discusses art as her main means for advocacy and talks about her various ambitions and goals for the future of her work. Listen now!

instagram: @eachvoice

music: massobeats

In this episode, I’m joined by Connor Dalgaard, a mental health activist. He discusses how he first became interested in mental health, through volunteering at a summer camp and meeting his district counselor. Connor talks about the importance of mental health education in school and how he was able to implement this education through his high school’s mental health club. He talks about the specific activities he was able to conduct and how he was able to notice a change in his school’s environment, involving the way students talked about mental health. Connor also talks about his transition from a high school advocate to a college student pursuing psychology. Tune in now!

instagram: @eachvoice

music: massobeats

This week, I’m joined by Dayna Altman, a mental health advocate, author, and entrepreneur. She talks about her fascinating work combining cooking, baking, and mental health. She opens up about her mental health struggles and how they led to her deciding to create change through her organization “Bake it Till You Make it”, incorporating her love of cooking. She talks about her various projects including her cookbook, mental health workshops, and even her baking competition inspired by Netflix’s “Nailed It!” Dayna discusses her future plans for her organization as well as the reasons why she believes it to be so important to create environments for supportive mental health conversation.

instagram: @eachvoice

music: massobeats

In this episode, I’m joined by Kiana Kay, a youth mental health advocate. She talks about the stress and pressure she felt in high school, leading her to develop personal self-care practices. She discusses the importance of exercise and the outdoors in mental health improvement. She talks about how she became inspired to create her mental health organization “Sunday Steps 4 Mental Health”, which is aimed to encourage youth to spend more time outdoors as well as have conversations about mental health. We discuss tips for anyone interested in creating mental health initiatives and talk about our experiences being afraid to start due to teasing from peers. Listen now using the link in our bio!

instagram: @eachvoice

music: massobeats

In this episode, I’m joined by Cadon Sagendorf, a mental health and child welfare advocate. He discusses his upbringing, through being adopted into a transracial family and dealing with severe mental health struggles leading him to be put into multiple residential mental health facilities. He discusses how this impacted and shaped him, leading him to be an advocate for those within the system today and is now pursuing law. Throughout this episode, he discusses his personal memories regarding his experiences and anecdotes from when he was younger.

instagram: @eachvoice

music: massobeats

This episode, I'm joined by Dr. Kathryn Bates, a research fellow in youth development and mental health at King's College London. We discuss the importance of accurate information on mental health in the media. Kathryn talks about how misleading titles and headings on mental health news can be, and the importance of teaching teenagers how to evaluate news in the media as well as research studies. We discuss the Prevalence Inflation Hypothesis, a theory that finds a correlation between increasing mental illness rates and increasing mental health campaigns - highlighting the need for accurate depictions of mental health in the media. Kathryn also discusses her current research on loneliness in young people.

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instagram: @eachvoice

music: massobeats

In this episode, I talk with Michelle Wen, a high school mental health advocate. She talks about an event that occurred at the beginning of high school which deeply hurt her and changed her mindset. She reflects on this event, discussing how she felt intense pressure throughout middle and high school, harming some of her relationships with her peers. She also discusses how she was able to gain resiliency from these experiences, learning to take life slowly and refrain from comparing herself to others. We talk about themes such as jealousy, competition, and comparison.

This episode, I talk about my worries, hopes, and goals for my senior year of high school. I reflect on high school and the way it shaped me, allowing myself to reach this milestone after consistently putting myself in challenging situations to help me improve and gain new skills. I touch on topics of graduation and senioritis. I discuss the way high school has shaped me as a person, and my goal to maintain my values of kindness and gratitude throughout this year. Please feel free to message me if you’re a fellow highschooler and want to chat, I’d love to talk with you!

instagram: @eachvoice

music: massobeats