Amanda Southworth—Take Action Even When You’re Scared 

“If we avoided doing things because we’re scared, we would never get anything done,” iOS developer, and mental health and human rights activist Amanda Southworth said at the 2019 Texas Conference for Women.

She should know.

As someone who suffered from anxiety, depression and suicidal thoughts, she recognized something important in 2015: “I could continue on my current path and probably die before I turned 40. Or, I could take what I was given and use it as a force to make things better.”

So, that’s what she did, taking her love of coding and using it to create tools to support the growing number of people who are struggling with mental illness.  

She started by creating AnxietyHelper, a mobile app that offers resources to start the healing process, and has since founded Astra Labs, a youth-run nonprofit with a mission to help people who feel marginalized see the future they are meant to have. Today, Astra Labs reaches more than 4.5 million people.