Letters to Strangers

Letters to Strangers (L2S) is a global youth-run 501(c)(3) nonprofit seeking to destigmatize mental illness and increase access to affordable, quality treatment for youth aged 13 to 24. We achieve our mission with a youth-run team through three main pathways: anonymous letter-writing, science-informed peer education, and grassroots policy-based advocacy. Since Letters to Strangers began, we've impacted over 35,000 people worldwide and have expanded to over a dozen countries on six continents. From the first student mental health task force on the Rutgers University Honors College campus to the first mental health professional ever brought to speak at our Karachi, Pakistan high school Chapter; from the first youth mental health movement in Liberia with our Monrovia Chapter to creating a short film series with actors from the Screen Actors Guild of New York, our network of youth mental health changemakers come from all backgrounds to fight for a common human cause. We have been featured on or by the National Alliance on Mental Illness (as a plenary keynote at the 2019 National Convention and winner of the Young Leader Award), Global Changemaker as the only American winner of the 2019 cohort, Global Teen Leader by the We Are Family Foundation, Vice, Viacom's Generation Change initiative, TEDxTeen, Unilever's Young Entrepreneur Awards (as the youngest-ever winner), Child Mind Institute, StudentVoice, The Philadelphia Inquirer, and more. The road ahead is long but worthwhile!