“Talking About Mental Health Does Take its Toll… it’s Overwhelming Sometimes”
Activist Dior Vargas knows minorities are ignored when it comes to mental health. But change comes with a price.
Interview by Yu Vongkiatkajorn.
In 2013, Dior Vargas began researching mental health and depression online, only to notice that the images she was seeing were all too similar: rarely did she see a person of color.
“I thought that wasn’t an accurate representation of what it’s like to live with mental health — and that really needs to be confronted,” said Vargas, who is Latina. Not long after, Vargas launched the People of Color and Mental Illness Photo Project, a social media campaign focused on diversifying the representation of mental illness. She posted a photo of herself with a handwritten sign saying she had depression, then asked others to share their own photos and experiences. Submissions poured in.
“It started blowing up,” says Vargas. Participants told her the project helped them feel less alone; others said they were using it to start conversations with their families. “It became clear to me that people were yearning for a catalyst to get this going. People think there’s a look to mental illness, and there isn’t.”
