Youth mental health advocate on surviving suicide attempts and inspiring others

Diana Chao shares about growing up below the poverty line bipolar disorder, and how her inspiring story of survival led her to found the largest global youth for youth mental health non-profit.

Video transcript

DIANA CHAO: Ever since I was young, I always just thought that it would be better for everyone if I disappeared. It wasn't until my little brother, who I was raising at the time, found me during my final suicide attempt, and I thought of that as a sort of breaking point. Suicide rates have increased by over 65% in the last 40 years. Now, it's the second leading cause of death for all young people around the world.

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BRITTANY JONES-COOPER: Hey, everyone. I'm Brittany Jones-Cooper. I'm joined by Diana Chao. Chao founded Letters to Strangers, designed to destigmatize mental illness and elevate suicide prevention awareness. Can you take me back to being 13 years old, and some of the feelings you were feeling at that time?

DIANA CHAO: I grew up with a lot of abuse and assault. I was diagnosed with bipolar disorder when I was 13. As a first-generation Chinese-American immigrant who was growing up beneath the poverty line, you know, it was difficult to know how to navigate the health care space. I wasn't allowed to seek the consistent care that the psychiatrist who diagnosed me really recommended. My mental health condition worsened to a point where it started to affect my physical health, what is commonly known as psychosomatic symptoms. And so it ended up resulting in an eye disease that would make me blind every time I got an eye episode.

And I did attempt and survive a few suicide attempts. And I think, of course, you don't want to get to the crisis point like that before you recognize that you should seek help, but that was a pretty big eye-opener. And because of the stigma within my culture around mental illness, and just within society at large. So I think I was really afraid of how people would react if I told them about my diagnosis, and I really kept it to myself for as long as I felt like I needed to.

BRITTANY JONES-COOPER: I know that you found the power to heal through words. So when did you discover that writing could help you through and navigate this?

DIANA CHAO: I was writing these journals, like a lot of places recommend. But I think because I was in such a negative space, it kind of led to, like, negative, echoey spirals. And I ended up writing letters instead, at first to fictional characters, and then to random strangers. As I'm working through these emotions and as I'm imagining talking to someone who's there for me, I often find myself ending the letter on a positive note. I can be as harsh as I want to myself and to my own mind. Having it be addressed to a stranger means that, you know, maybe you could imagine the stranger to be the most empathetic, kind person you could ever want to talk to. It forced me to reevaluate some of the lenses through which I viewed life. Like, I could be so kind and empathetic to these people I'd never even met, so why couldn't I do the same for myself.

BRITTANY JONES-COOPER: You launched Letters to Strangers during your sophomore year of high school. It is now the largest global by youth, for youth mental health nonprofit. What's your mission?

DIANA CHAO: Our letter exchanges typically happen on student groups, but since the pandemic, we launched an online letter exchange platform. You send out a letter to a stranger, you'll get one from a stranger. It's not a pen pal exchange. It's not meant to be a Hallmark card. Is really a message in a bottle, where you're sharing these vulnerabilities, and letting that be the resonating human connection that binds you to this stranger somewhere in the world who's reading your letter. After I graduated from high school and I moved away from the environment that was giving me so much pain, that allowed me to transform Letters to Strangers to something that was very explicitly and proudly about mental health.

Our mission is to destigmatize mental illness and increase access to affordable and quality treatment, particularly for young people aged 13 to 24. A lot of people don't get to survive the things that I ended up surviving. Letters to Strangers is my way of living this second chance at life right. I think hearing that I might have helped someone else find their second chance is everything.