When I was as young as 10, I had to handle the responsibility of taking care of 3 younger siblings. When I turned 11, I had to make sure I picked up my younger siblings from school and made sure they weren’t starving. This affected my social life a lot, I never had time to hang out with any of my friends because of my responsibility. I still have to carry out this responsibility to this day.
Read MoreThis story is an excerpt from Love Connects Us All: The Story of Zinan Noah Colson. Zinan is a 16 Strong Project Youth Advocacy Board member who published his first book in June 2024.
Read MoreStill here forced to move with time. Life truly humbles you and it can make you suffer, but sometimes suffering is what builds you to become stronger and more equipped for the future. You learn and you grow and you take your hardships and you turn them into testimonies.
Read MoreAccepting my queerness while growing up in a Catholic school that never accepted me continues to affect my mental health today. Aside from feeling unaccepted in general by this toxic environment, I was mocked, bullied, and made to feel invisible by some of my peers
Read MoreIt all started when I was just a little girl. My main focus in life should have been going to school, hanging out with my friends, playing outside…experiencing a bright and happy childhood. Instead, I had to deal with the trauma that my father put my family and I through. They say when a child goes through a divorce, they lose a relationship with one of their parents and that was definitely true for me.
Read MoreGrowing up, my family was everyone’s idea of the American Dream. Two hardworking parents who loved each other, two beautiful daughters who never got into trouble, and even the white picket fence. But no one could see the chaos that went on behind closed doors.
Read MoreIt wasn’t easy, but it was worth it. From a childhood plagued with emotional and physical abuses from parents generationally ill with alcoholism, it took great strength to come out of the depths of self-harm caused by confusion, anger, and sadness.
Read MoreBefore I was five, I’d lived in poverty, had parents that were divorced—my mom was a single parent of two, chronically depressed and could barely make ends meet—I experienced emotional and physical neglect regularly, and with few options for childcare, was frequently left in the hands of people who physically and sexually abused me.
Read MoreFrom the outside looking in the terrain, peaks and valleys, of my journey are not visible. My classmates could not see that my uncles came to the daddy daughter dance in elementary school and cannot see that I think about who will walk me down the aisle on my wedding day almost every day. While it would be easy to dwell on the hard days and how my life is different, that is not the story I want to tell.
Read MoreI celebrated reaching 18 years old physically intact. I had made it out. But I was struggling inside and continued to for a decade. It took me until 28 years old, three years after Moms death, to realize I could not outrun my past.
Read MoreLife comes at us fast. We never really get a say on what challenges are thrown at us, we are told to just keep moving. Our volunteer this week, Jackie, was no different. I had the opportunity to interview her and the following is her story.
Read MoreWriting from a place of darkness. Sharp with perpetual pain and starkness. A place I never imagined existing. Splintered with sorrow and uncertainty, in a vague reality. Wishing I had a remnant of self-actuality. Who am I? Where does potential dwell?
Read MoreNo one knew how I really felt, and I remember feeling responsible for my dad’s well-being. I was so afraid that if I told him I wanted to live with my mom, he would feel so alone he might take his own life. So I stayed.
Read MoreSometimes I think of my life as a movie. The key difference is movies usually only focus on one big, scary event and my life has had far more than that. From the age of 12, I knew my life was not completely typical. I started experiencing panic attacks and always felt “weird”.
Read MoreA poem by our incredibly brave contributor, Mary Beth Spang.
Read MoreI started choosing the easy way out of everything I did because fear of failure scared me. I constantly looked at my parents for validation that everything was going to be fine, but another birthday with a homemade cake and cards from my dad without money in them made me feel otherwise.
Read MoreWhat people did not realize about me is that I was bothered on the inside. No one really took notice of me, always wanting to stay after practice late or continuously asking my friends if they wanted to chill that day. My efforts to not be home were persistent but not obvious so my friends never saw the desperation of my pleas.
Read MoreNo one asks you if you wish to be born or what set of parents you end up with. It is all a part of some lottery we cannot control. This is not going to be a “poor me” story, rather a conversation on where I went wrong in dealing with my own mental health issues.
Read More16 Strong's Every Voice Heard initiative is a storytelling platform designed to encourage young people to take control of their own emotional and mental well-being in a safe, supportive community.
Read More