Online School Student Starts Business to Advocate for Mental Health

2024年5月9日 by 瓦莱丽·柯克

3分钟阅读

Image of a smiling young female teen riding on a horse wearing a light brown cowboy hat. She is doing extracurricular sports of horse riding while attending Connections Academy online school.

在这里，自信与优雅相遇.”

这就是Wylee Mitchell对她的描述美国Y品牌 clothing line - a business she started while she was a student at Nevada Connections Academy.

Her company offers horse and rodeo-themed t-shirts with fun designs and sayings that exude the confidence she had to start her own business while still attending online high school.

创业之路

Every entrepreneur follows a different, very unique path to starting their own business. Mitchell’s started from a place of sadness and a drive to get involved with advocacy for mental health. One of her best friends lost her battle with depression and died by suicide in 2018.

“I put a lot of that guilt on myself,” said Mitchell. “我为什么要让这种事发生?”

根据国家心理健康研究所, suicide is a major public health concern and among the leading causes of death in the United States. 的疾病控制和预防中心 found that suicide rates for people ages 10 - 24 jumped 62% in the past two decades, reporting suicide as the third leading cause of death in for this age group.

America’s young people are struggling in what has been called a mental health crisis.

“After battling some mental challenges of my own, I decided it was time to make a difference in the world,米切尔说.

她专注于预防自杀 advocacy and mental health awareness, she launched 美国Y品牌她17岁时和她妈妈在一起. For every sale of her Y Stop Now T-shirts, she donates $5 to mental health advocacy organization 自杀意识教育之声(SAVE) foundation, which provides resources for 预防自杀 initiatives and suicide loss survivors.

希望的信息

的 Y Stop Now T-shirt design carries a message of hope: Y stop now; the story is just getting started.

的 semicolon represents that the story doesn’t have to end. She wants people to know that their story is just getting started, and that life is worth living.

“If we are able to help one person see the light in making it through one more day, 一切都是值得的,米切尔说.

From Online School Student to Mental Health Advocate and Entrepreneur

Attending online school gave Mitchell the flexibility to balance her studies and the demands of starting a small business. 网络学校也给了她毅力和韧性当她面临挑战时，她需要.

“的 hardest part was getting backlash and hearing negative comments,米切尔说. “It is challenging to hear people talk negatively about something you are so passionate about and put so much work into.”

She has three tips for other young entrepreneurs who want to champion a cause by starting a small business.

相信不可能. In the beginning, she never would have expected to sell as many shirts as she did.
伸出手去，建立联系. She shared her story and her goal with anyone who would listen, and because of that her story was able to reach so many.
努力工作，不要被打败. It is easy to give up when something doesn't work out in your favor. 放弃不会给你带来任何好处. Push past the challenges and stand back up after getting knocked down.

It’s also important to connect with the organizations you want to support, like she did with the mental health advocacy groups she used when starting her business. 的y can help you share your story and your mission to bring awareness to your cause.

She also stresses that “just because you are not someone’s priority doesn’t mean you aren’t capable of wonderful things. 的re is no better way to prove your importance than to prove it to yourself.”