Nina Georgieva (Weinberg ‘25), struggled with anxiety during her transition to college, so she sought support through a partial hospitalization program. As the program ended, she said she started feeling “different” about her mental health.
During this time, she discovered a website through someone in her sorority called IfYoureReadingThis.org — a site where college students, including members of the Northwestern community, can write letters to share stories of their mental health struggles.
Feeling inspired by what she read on the site, Georgieva decided to write a letter of her own.
“If you’re reading this, you’re allowed to struggle,” she wrote at the top of her letter. Georgieva finished it with lessons she learned from the program.
The site provided a space where writers, like Georgieva, could open up about their mental health challenges and offer advice for individuals in similar situations. Others have shared stories about struggling with anxiety and the stressors of being a student-athlete.
IfYoureReadingThis.org was founded by University of Virginia alum Alexandra Lawlor during the fall of 2016. Lawlor’s goal was to “help students … feel comfortable talking to somebody” about their mental health challenges after they read others’ letters, especially if it was from someone they knew personally, the site stated.
Since its inception at UVA, the organization has reached almost 30 colleges that have chapters of their own. Each school has a webpage featuring letters submitted by students, professors and staff. Many letters also include a contact form for readers to connect with authors about their stories.
Georgieva, who graduated in June, wrote her letter in the spring of her sophomore year, which was later published at the end of that school year.
“It was very cathartic,” Georgieva said. “I think it helped me validate a lot of how I have felt about my mental health.”
She said she was surprised when people she didn’t know well, including old classmates from high school, reached out to tell her they read her letter and related to her experience or were proud of her for sharing.
Others, like Weinberg senior Isa Vivona, were motivated to join the initiative after learning about it at an NU Org Fair. She joined the NU chapter of IfYoureReadingThis.org after she transferred to NU in her junior year from the University of California, Berkeley and experienced difficulty with the transition.
Vivona’s responsibilities in the chapter include managing its social media channels and taking photos of writers to post along with their written words, which she noted was an important aspect of each letter.
“We like connecting a face to a story,” Vivona said. “Mental health is not something you should be embarrassed about, and everybody has experiences that are worth listening to.”
However, the NU chapter also accepts anonymous letters from those who are uncomfortable with sharing their identity, she added.
The chapter holds meetings once every two weeks to discuss engagement and outreach.
Weinberg senior Colleen Charchut, the chapter’s president, said the goal is to publish one letter per week, pointing to the letters’ impact on students who are struggling.
“It’s really inspiring to read the professors’ letters, my peers’ letters, student athletes letters,” Charchut said. “When they put down how they’re feeling into words, it sends really powerful messages.”
Once a letter is published, there are usually at least a couple thousand readers on the chapter’s website, Charchut said.
As a whole, IfYoureReadingThis.org has reached a total of over 300,000 readers and published over 1,000 letters across all chapters, according to the site’s impact page.
Some students that felt that impact reflected on what those letters meant for them during a time when they were struggling.
One such student, Weinberg senior Skyla Kiang, discovered the NU chapter in her sophomore year. She said the most impactful letter she read was written by chemistry Prof. Stephanie Knezz, who was once her professor.
When Kiang came across the letter, she was “going through a lot” in both her academic and personal life. Kiang said Knezz’s letter, which emphasized taking time for rest and self-care, was the most inspiring to her.
“It was really reassuring to read something that one of my professors had written,” Kiang said. “I feel like her piece just really resonated with me because it was exactly what I needed when I was going on the website.”
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