20-Year-Old Diana Chao is Destigmatizing Mental Illness With Letters to Strangers

Dear Stranger,



Even when you feel you are not loved, you are!



Love,



Stranger

Content warning: This piece contains mentions of suicide.

Everyone has a story. For 20-year-old Diana Chao, hers is one of hardship, creation, and healing.

At 9, knowing only basic English words, she and her family immigrated from Guizhou, China to Southern California, where Diana found herself in a predominantly white town that would lead her to fight for her heritage for years. She’s lived with mental illness since 13, and in the moments when she felt most alone, she started to write letters to no one in particular.

“My own experiences with bipolar disorder and suicide led me to seek healing in writing. When that became the one thing that helped, I realized that writing is humanity distilled into ink,” Diana wrote in an email. “That’s when I decided to create Letters to Strangers. Over time, I’ve come to recognize that Letters to Strangers has become far more complex than what I’d ever imagined.”

Through Letters to Strangers, Diana helps others tell their own stories. The not-for-profit seeks to destigmatize mental illness and increase access to affordable, quality treatment for young people, and its titular letter-writing is where it all started.

Members write anonymous, heartfelt letters to share their vulnerabilities and offer support for those who are fighting through difficult times. Mostly, the letters are whatever the writer wants them to be, so long as they’re authentic -- whether that’s a memory, a drawing, or even just a few kind words. And each is addressed in the same way, to and from a stranger. The letters get sent via local school chapters, partner sites, or online submission.

“Look up at the stars sometimes, if you're worried. They don't know if you're anxious or sad or scared, and that's a good thing,” one letter said. “Good luck! Be steady, be strong, and know that in the end, I’m here beside you, a stranger in passing -- and I’m rooting for you.”

“I think empathy itself is a difficult concept for a lot of people to practice, because it feels so abstract and individualized and maybe even misleading,” Diana says. “But I’ve found that in letter-writing, something about putting a pen to paper and spilling your thoughts and heart into ink… it makes empathy organic. It makes empathy simple. Maybe that’s why letters always make me feel like I’m not alone.”

Empathy is at the core of Letters to Strangers, and it’s a kind of gentle human connection that Diana feels is hard to find these days. To her, these are the connections that heal.

“These days, letter-writing is a pretty antiquated concept. I mean, yes, our grandmas are still writing letters, but most of us would rather send someone a DM or, god forbid, even a phone call. Handwriting can feel so tedious,” Diana said. “But that’s exactly it. Handwriting a letter forces us to slow down and really think about every stroke we make. It takes us away from all the lights and notifications of the digital age and quiets us for a while, away from all the chaos.”

Diana’s story has taken her in several different directions, and over the years she’s accomplished a lot of unexpected things. She’s played the bagpipes in a Celtic rock band, gone on a dinosaur expedition in the southwestern US, and hitchhiked by herself across the Isle of Skye. In 2017, she was honored as a Three Dot Dash Global Teen Leader. In 2018, she was the youngest to ever be chosen as a Unilever Young Entrepreneurs Awards winner. Nowadays, she’s an esteemed photographer and a junior at Princeton University studying geosciences, history, and diplomacy. But her proudest achievement remains her work with Letters to Strangers.

“I think I’m proudest of knowing that I’ve helped some people from suffering in the same ways I did during my darkest times,” Diana said. “Whenever I read messages from people thanking my work for saving them from suicide or encouraging them to seek help, I just think of past Diana, and I’m dumbfounded by all that would’ve vanished if I hadn’t been saved during my suicide attempts.”

What started with a single club at her public high school has now become a student network that spans six continents. Letters to Strangers has evolved beyond letter-writing to creating peer education training on mental health and leading grassroots advocacy efforts for policy-based changes to mental health awareness and treatment reform.

“I think one of the most dangerous emotions for me was bitterness – it made me believe that help was useless, a support system was pointless, and whatever I did would be worthless. Bitterness adds that ‘less’ to the end of everything,” Diana said. “More than anger or sadness, bitterness kept me struggling because it made me believe that the struggle was the only way that made sense. But it’s not.”

Diana urges anyone struggling or looking for belonging to try to “triumph over the bitterness.” Her hope is for young people to be able to support each other, have a general understanding of what each other is going through, and grow alongside one another through their mistakes and triumphs.

“Bipolar disorder and suicide attempts began shattering my life ever since I was 13,” Diana said. “My healing journey is still far from over, but I’ve learned so much about myself and the people in my life. I’m proud to be a big sister, a survivor, and a storyteller.”

September is National Suicide Awareness Prevention Month. Too often feelings of shame and stigma prevent people from talking openly about mental illness and suicide. This month (and all months, for that matter), reach out, raise awareness, and connect others with potentially life-saving resources.

National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 1-800-273-8255



Crisis Text Line: Text HOME to 741741



Letters to Strangers: Visit their site to get involved.

Three Dot Dash is a global youth initiative that powers the most influential social entrepreneurs between the ages of 13 -19, who have found a solution or innovation to address a basic human need. We’d like to thank Three Dot Dash for amplifying the work of young people and connecting us with Diana for this article.