It was a breaking point for Veda’s mental health, and she described it as "the lowest it had ever been."

It felt like no matter what she did, she wasn’t acceptable—whether she was “chubbier” or “skinnier.”

“It was like I was a ball of anxiety and depression and it really impacted my friendships and schoolwork.”

At the age of 3, my mother and I boarded a Greyhound bus with nothing but a little hope for a new beginning after my father had left us behind.

I am an African American woman, low income, first generation college student from Memphis, TN.

When I was a 12 year old girl, both of my parents died in a murder suicide.

Her eight-year marriage ended abruptly, leaving her grappling with heartbreak and a sense of uncertainty about her future.

Graduating at the top of her class, she had landed her first corporate job, but the pressure to prove herself left her spiraling.