Elyse Fox
Sad Girls Club
Brooklyn, NY USA
"Your ‘why’ should make your soul tingle. It should give you goosebumps because it’s so powerful and impactful."
Career Roadmap
Elyse's work combines: Medicine, Non-Profit Organizations, and Helping People
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Day In The Life
Skills &
Education
Here's the path I took:
High School
Bachelor's Degree
Communication and Media Studies
Buffalo State University
Life & Career Milestones
My path in life took a while to figure out
1.
Growing up, I dreamed of becoming a documentary filmmaker, passionate about telling real stories that connect people.
2.
During one of the hardest periods of my life, I struggled with severe depression even though everything looked perfect from the outside.
3.
To process what I was going through, I created a documentary sharing my mental health journey and the anxiety I faced behind the scenes.
4.
When the film was released, young women around the world reached out saying they saw themselves in my story and wanted a place to talk.
5.
Inspired by those messages, I started an Instagram page that eventually grew into Sad Girls Club, a community for honest mental health conversations.
6.
I hosted my first small Sad Girls Club event in 2017, gathering just a handful of women to openly talk about mental health.
7.
Soon after, the co-founder of Instagram discovered our work and invited me to participate in the platform’s first global mental health campaign.
8.
Today, I lead Sad Girls Club as a nonprofit dedicated to breaking mental health stigma and bringing culturally relevant support to marginalized communities.
Defining Moments
How I responded to discouragement
THE NOISE
Messages from Society in general:
You have to be strong and keep your struggles to yourself.
How I responded:
I grew up learning that we need to keep our struggles to ourselves. Especially as a Black woman, you're taught to be strong and just take whatever comes your way. But that's not how it should be. We all deserve safe spaces to discuss our struggles. We all deserve access to mental health resources. That's why I created Sad Girls Club, to combat the stigma around mental health and to help others facing mental health struggles.
Experiences and challenges that shaped me
I really struggled with my mental health, despite everything looking fine from the outside. I decided to make a documentary about my struggles, which launched me into creating a nonprofit to help others and combat the stigma around mental health.