katie's story

Katie is currently working alongside two peers to restart GW Hero, an on campus organization focusing on mental health.

Katie’s father passed away by suicide in January of 2005 when she was four years old.

Growing up, Katie recalls that she and her brother, who is six years older than her, were bullied in school. In the early 2000s, she said the stigma towards mental illness was extremely present in her environment.

Late in high school was when Katie started to become passionate and found her voice. As she matured, she realized that she needed to talk about suicide. As her friends grew in passion for sports and school subjects, Katie’s desire to be a voice in the discussion of health and suicide grew.

It was around this time that Katie decided to mark her body with her passion.

“I decided it wasn’t as planned out as my other tattoo, it was more I had an opening for a tattoo that I’d want to put on my body forever. This one was more like, if I had one thing to put on my body forever, what would I?”

Katie asked her friend, a stick-and-poke tattoo artist and a college student in New York City, to tattoo her.

She took a train into New York in the morning and walked a few blocks to her friend’s dorm. She described the tattoo itself as “not hurting too bad.” And after it was done, her friend posted a picture of the dainty semi-colon on Katie’s middle finger

“That was a really good day,” she smiled as she spoke. “I went to a little cafe after and I got a good chai.”

Now, as a sophomore in college, Katie advocates for “f**k the stigma,” a phrase that has grown more popular in recent years, but was absent when Katie was young and finding her voice and passion.

Katie strongly advocates for the discussion of suicide. She explained that if it were talked about more, the stigma would melt away, resulting in a healthier environment.

“Mental illness is just like any physical illness and should be treated as such.”

That being said, Katie brings a different perspective to the table. She can talk about it in a different way because it has affected her in a different way. Her perspective sheds light on a stigmatized topic in a way not many can.

Katie posted about mental illness on her Instagram this year, on Suicide Awareness Day, and was moved by the overwhelming positive feedback she received from people she knew as well as some she did not know. It made her “super happy” to hear from people she did not expect to.

She explained that you do not have to be an activist to support being able to talk about mental illness.

“If people you wouldn’t expect to talk about it are talking about it, that’s a very big step in the right direction.”

Katie and her tattoo