CHAPTER 1
The You’re Not Alone Project
When I was in my early twenties, I found myself in a unique position of having over 5,000 followers on instagram with the majority of that audience being teens and young adults.
I noticed a huge problem — social media had (and still has today) a massive negative impact on mental health. Being that I was in college studying psychology in order to better understand the human psyche I was very in tune to the realization that excessive scrolling on social media could lead to a person feeling anxious, depressed, and something I saw most of — isolated.
Well, that needed to change, at least in my corner of the internet anyways, so I built The You’re Not Alone Project (YNA). It was an online community dedicated to promoting a positive environment for everyone to feel like they were a part of something beyond themselves. I didn’t think much of it, or how I was going to run it. I just made a graphic (that was terrible and will never see the light of day again) and posted it on my personal IG along with a handle to the new instagram page.
The page gained 2,000 followers in a single day.
On social media we’d have monthly challenges, follow spotlights, an ambassadorship program, and opportunities to give back to those in need.
The You’re Not Alone Project lasted for 5 years and was great chance for me to be creative. More so - I got to serve as a mentor, and help a younger audience feel a little less alone.
To this day I still get invites to weddings, baby announcements, Christmas cards, and email updates from those who I got to share this experience with.
I want to give a special thank you to Jamie, Nicole, and Rachel for volunteering their time to helping me bring this one to life!
Notable Mentions:
For those not familiar with music, our logo and symbol was a fermata.
It’s a symbol that is placed above a note in music to hold it out for longer than it’s intended value.
This project served an audience of over 500,000 people in 77 different counties around the globe.
We ran annual fundraising events each year for charities including St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital and The American Red Cross. We raised roughly $2,000 per fundraiser, and those who were unable to financially contribute had the opportunity to color a page for a book sent to the children or help weave friendship bracelets.
I was given the opportunity, through this project to design our website, social media graphics, t-shirts, bracelets, and guitar picks. I also wrote and self-published a book called Read Me When…
