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Today’s Ypulse Interview is with our 2010 Ypulse Youth Marketing Mashup Community Keynote speaker Jamie Tworkowski. Jamie is the founder of To Write Love on Her Arms, a non-profit movement dedicated to presenting hope and finding help for people struggling with addiction, depression, self-injury and suicide. Jamie has been traveling for speaking engagements this past month, so I caught up with him over email to hear about the origins of TWLOHA and what Mashup attendees can learn from his experience with at-risk teens. Register today and qualify for Early Adopter Rates!

Ypulse: What inspired you to start To Write Love On Her Arms? How did it grow from an initial idea to the community that it is today?

Jamie Tworkowski: It began as an attempt to help a friend and tell a story. In 2006, I met a girl who was struggling with depression, addiction, self-injury and had attempted suicide. She was denied entry into a treatment center and spent the next five days with my friends and me in Orlando. I wrote a story about that experience (called “To Write Love on Her Arms”), posted it as a blog on MySpace and started selling t-shirts as a way to help pay for her treatment. There was no intention of starting a non-profit – I was just hoping to help a friend. But some friends in bands started to wear the shirts and so they got out in front of people beyond our community in Central Florida. From there, it spread really quickly with friends telling friends and other bands lending their support. Messages started to pour in from people asking for help or how to help their friends or how they could get involved. Basically, from then to now, we’ve continued to respond to those messages – more than 150,000 since 2006 – and we’ve done our best to be creative in inviting people into a conversation about hope and help and community.

YP: Can you describe the role music plays in TWLOHA?

JT: Obviously, it’s had so much to do with people finding out about TWLOHA, especially early on, from bands wearing our shirts to bands inviting us to be part of their tours to TWLOHA tents at festivals. Beyond that, we believe that music is unique and powerful in its ability to move people, to remind us that we’re alive and that it’s okay to feel things and express things – it’s okay to ask questions. Today, whether it’s our own events or festivals that we’re a small part of, we love being in the mix with music because we feel like there’s so much common ground, that music is a perfect catalyst to the conversation we’re trying to invite people into.

YP: What has been the most rewarding experience since you started TWLOHA? The most challenging?

JT: The most rewarding would be hearing someone say “TWLOHA saved my life.” Not that we take the credit, but it’s a special thing to be able to think that people are alive or choosing to get help because of this work we’re doing. It’s easy to keep going when you hear that.

The most challenging would be navigating the growing pains and criticism, just dealing with the business and opinions along the way. I just wanted to write and be creative in helping people but there’s a lot more to starting and now leading a non-profit. Our staff has grown to 10, plus six interns, and we deal with lawyers and accountants and a lot of that is a long way from where this started. Thankfully, we have a great team and they handle most of the meetings and calls and business so that I can try to focus on the heart of the matter.

YP: What are some of the biggest misconception teens have about addiction, depression and suicide?

JT: Just that they can’t talk about it, or that they’re the only one with struggles or questions. That’s the stigma with this stuff, the lie that no one could possibly relate to us if we’re struggling, or we’re afraid of being judged or misunderstood or labeled. And I wouldn’t say that any of those feelings are exclusive to teens. I think people of all ages can relate to those feelings.

More on Jamie
Jamie founded To Write Love on Her Arms, a non-profit movement dedicated to presenting hope and finding help for people struggling with addiction, depression, self-injury and suicide. TWLOHA began in 2006 as Jamie’s attempt to help a friend and tell a story. Since then, the TWLOHA team has responded to more than 150,000 emails and messages from over 100 countries, in addition to investing more than $700,000 directly into treatment and recovery. Jamie’s TWLOHA blogs are a source of hope and encouragement for thousands, and he speaks frequently at universities, concerts and conferences. Jamie has been interviewed for NBC Nightly News, CNN.com and Rolling Stone Magazine.

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Categorized under: 2010 Mashup, Movies & Music

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