In the latest ‘Community Case Studies’ blog, PLOS Mental Health speaks to Suzanne Fox about her journey with the Yellow Tulip Project – a youth-driven movement which aims to tackle the stigma surrounding mental health conditions and serve as a beacon for hope. As parents and as a society, we want the best for our future generations but sometimes we struggle to truly hear them. In this blog, Suzanne shares her powerful experiences and how the Yellow Tulip Project came to be and continues to change the lives of those involved.
***Trigger Warning***
The contents of this blog includes the discussion of suicide and other topics that some may find uncomfortable. If you are affected by any of the topics discussed, please reach out to your physician or mental health professional. All individuals named within this blog have provided consent, or their families have provided consent for them to be identified.
The Hope Garden
Ten years ago I knew little about mental health. I was balancing my professional career as an educator and cross-cultural consultant with raising my three children. Like most parents, I just wanted my children to be happy and healthy and I thought they were….and yet somehow I missed all of the signs. I had no idea that my youngest child, my only daughter, was suffering alone with her depression, self-harm and suicidal thoughts. It took losing her two best friends to suicide when she was a 15 year sophomore in high school for me to get my head out of the sand and realize that my dearest daughter had been suffering alone for far too long. It took these tragic losses for me to wake up and accept the fact that I wasn’t there to support my daughter. How is it possible that I didn’t know? You can’t see mental illness. She “looked” fine. “Seemed” happy. But behind the facade she was deeply depressed and was suffering in silence. Then, when the facade came down, and she told me about her depression, I did what I thought I was supposed to do. Fix it! I put on my red cape and swooped in like “super mom” here now to protect my daughter and make everything better. Just like when she was little and had skinned her knee and I ran in with a band aid, or when she had a bad cold and I made ginger tea and chicken noodle soup. But Julia didn’t need to be fixed. She needed to be heard. She needed a shoulder to lean on and a trusted ally that she could be with to help her help herself.
Suzanne Fox and daughter Julia Hansen, Co-Founders of Yellow Tulip Project, Copyright, Suzanne Fox
But Julia didn’t need to be fixed. She needed to be heard.
So there we were in 2015. Me and my daughter- in a very dark place, and yet we knew that we had to do something. We were tired of the silence surrounding this topic, we were tired of the stigma that keeps far too many people from getting the help that they need, and we were so desperately sad about losing people that we loved to suicide. We needed to do something urgently and came up with a simple, hopeful plan. Yellow was her friend Payton’s favorite color and the tulip was her friend Beata’s favorite flower. The yellow tulip is the flower of hope so during Mental Health Awareness Week in October we called our community together to plant a yellow tulip Hope Garden. And the people of Portland Maine came. They got their hands dirty and planted hundreds of tulip bulbs. They listened to poetry and music, and heartfelt speeches about people’s struggles with their mental health, and they engaged in art and wellness activities. The Hope Garden is a perfect metaphor for addressing mental health just like tulips bulbs that need to be planted close together in order to grow, we all need to be there for each other and to remind people that it is ok to not be ok and that asking for help is a sign of strength not weakness.
Growing the Yellow Tulip Project
Bulb by bulb, garden by garden, community by community, the Yellow Tulip Project has grown from a mother-daughter duo in a small New England town, to a national and now international mental health organization that is making a difference in the lives of thousands of young people and adult allies. Our mission is to smash the stigma surrounding mental illness and to build a community of people who realize that hope happens when youth and community leaders work together. To lean into another garden metaphor, what started as a small grass roots initiative and have blossomed and bloomed into an energized network of Hope Gardeners. I believe the three main factors that have contributed to our growth have been:
An army of young changemakers that are getting involved in our momentum and bringing our message of hope, action and stigma reduction to where they are. They become youth ambassadors, and join our leadership team and know that their voices matter.
Innovative and out of the box creative approaches to addressing stigma through storytelling, the arts and nature based interventions.
Keeping it simple. Our simple, hopeful message comes with easy, adaptable resource kits and accessible action steps that transfer to any community.
We are movers and shakers and are all about action with immediate, hopeful things to do. We know that while we like to think big, we are a small team and are always careful to check in with ourselves and make sure that we don’t stray from who we are. We also know that there are amazing mental health organizations doing such important work and we love to collaborate with any individual or organization no matter how big or small who share our values and vision for a stigma free future. We know that no one can do this work alone and building a community of people who care is another secret to our success.
When we launched YTP we had two taglines that defined our mission: Hope Happens and Smash the Stigma.We saw hope happening in the beautiful Hope Garden plantings and Hope Day celebrations but how do you actually smash the stigma? It’s a good tagline for sure, but knowing that stigma is the main factor that keeps people from reaching out for the help that they need, we were fiercely determined to come up with a way to address this global issue. Our answer came in the form of big and powerful public photography exhibits that travel to schools, community centers, libraries, airports and other public spaces. I am More: Facing Stigma and Young Men Moving Mountains are our signature exhibits that challenge perceptions of what mental illness “looks” like and leave the viewer moved by the powerful images and accompanying stories. In our mind, the only way to change the way people talk and think about mental health is to actually have those conversations, and art can serve as a powerful tool in opening these conversations. We are taking mental illness out of the shadows. While many still don’t want to, or don’t know how to talk about this topic, we are talking about it all day every day in garden spaces, through the arts and storytelling and through the voices of young people who are the engine to all that we do.
Our mission is to smash the stigma surrounding mental illness and to build a community of people who realize that hope happens when youth and community leaders work together
Copyright: Suzanne Fox
Reflections
What a journey it has been. From where we were nine years ago to where we are now – tackling stigma and providing support to communities, reaching individuals far and wide and being promoted in mainstream media. Now, my daughter Julia is 25; a garden educator in Oakland California. I stepped down as the Executive Director of The Yellow Tulip Project in 2023, went back to graduate school at The University of Edinburgh to study Global Mental Health & Society and now serve as the Director of Global Initiatives. I also proudly teach adult education classes on mental health to help other parents know how to talk with their child about mental health issues. I know now to hang up my cape and simply be an active listener. I am now a mental health warrior. Educated and armed with knowledge, experience and compassion and fiercely trying to make a difference so that young people have the tools and support that they need and that suicide should never be an option.
Tails & Tulips Mental Health Walk, Copyright Suzanne Fox
Disclaimer: All perspectives within this blog are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the perspectives of PLOS Mental Health, PLOS or any of its affiliated Editors. The blog is not intended to replace any professional mental health advice