Mental health has always been a pressing issue, especially in high school. Students struggle through stress caused by pressure from academics, people and society. According to Thrive Teen, “25% of teens have been diagnosed with a mental health condition.” Additionally, “teen girls were more likely to report feelings of anxiety than teen boys.”
This is why Project Pink was founded in Texas. Nina Caradonna, the advisor of Project Pink at Troy High School, describes it as “a foundation all about bridging this gap between women and their understanding of their mental health.” The foundation carries out a simple yet fundamental mission: raising awareness, normalizing talk about mental health and helping women with mental health. Project Pink holds passionate founders, young women who have established a helpful and impactful foundation based in Texas.
Sophomore Shohani Sahu took it in her hands to implement this as a chapter at Troy High School. With the same mission, Sahu, the president of Project Pink, describes how she got the idea to make this a chapter at Troy High School and said, “During the summer, a girl called Isha, [the executive director at Texas,] she texted me on Instagram, and then she was like ‘it would be great if you have a Troy High chapter’. I was like ‘yeah’” Then Sahu “reached out to some of [her] friends to become board members” and created a team.
Board members anticipated jumping into this chapter at the school. “I knew that I wanted to be a part of something here at Troy High,” said sophomore Bhavisha Santhoshkumar, “So I joined, and I became secretary, and now we have club meetings every other week.”
Along with members, Caradonna was thrilled to not only take part but see young women want to be in this chapter as well. She said,“I was really pleased that these young girls are passionate enough about this to start up a chapter, [so] I wanted to support them in digging into the cause that mattered to them.”
Members have ardent hopes about the impact of Project Pink at Troy High School. Sophomore Nishika Kalyanasundaram, who is the vice president, commented, “I hope to reach out to many people and let them know that mental health is serious, and women’s health is also very important.”
Santhoshkumar shared similar outlooks, saying that she hopes for “making [Project Pink] an official club, to get our message or our mission across, and since we’re not the first club of this kind, since there’s other chapters in other high schools all over the nation that do it, we want to kind of connect to justify their mission and foundation.”
Meetings currently hold presentations and workshops about topics pertaining to mental health, especially in women such as “postpartum depression or menopause, just anxiety and depression in general,” as Santhoshkumar stated.
The club meetings are described to be a welcoming and safe place for all, taking place every other Monday in room 230. “Right now,” Santhoshkumar said, “we have about on average 20 people a meeting, and it’s mostly women, and the people that do show up have a lot of fun. We have food at almost every meeting, and we talk about mental health topics and how it affects not only women, like adult women, but also [girls] in high school.”
Ultimately, these meetings attempt to not only spread awareness about the effects and importance of mental health and further destigmatize the notions surrounding it, but they create a warm and healthy community at Troy High School as well. “Doing that kind of community organizing but also opening up some safe spaces for people to feel supported in their struggles of mental health as it connects to their identity,” Caradonna said, is something she is excited to see the board members accomplish.
As of this moment, individuals who partake in Project Pink in Troy High School have passionate goals for the future. Board members aim “to try bringing in psychologists and other women doctors to come and give presentations about women and mental health,” Kalyanasundaram said.
In the especially stress-inducing time of high school, leaders of Project Pink intend to continue to raise awareness and help high schoolers. There are serious “pressures of fitting in,” Caradonna said, “especially students that identify as women, they feel pressured to dress a certain way, to be a certain size, to act a certain way, to outwardly project and express themselves a certain way. But on top of that, there is academic pressure abound.”
For students looking for a place to stop by whether it’s to educate themselves on mental health, help advocate for the prioritization of it or “just to feel supported,” Caradonna encourages, “this is the way to do it.”
