Wearing mental health on your chest

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A creative new range of creative T-Shirts have been developed to combat mental health.

It can be difficult to talk about sensitive issues like anxiety and depression with people often feeling unprepared to talk about their issues. Brooklyn-based designer Dani Balenson, developed a t-shirt campaign while studying at the Rhode Island School of Design which has boomed into a global brand. Living With: has been created to empower people and encourage the conversation of mental health in society.

The collection of t-shirts represents disorders like Depression, OCD, Bipolar and ADHD with simple patterns unique to each condition. Extreme highs and lows experienced by a person with bipolar is represented with dark violet and luminous blue dots that pulse up and down. Similarly, ADHD is represented with busy, bright yellow and green dots that characterise hyperactivity and distraction associated with the mental illness.

“Living With: was founded to celebrate the millions of individuals across the nation who are living with mental disorders. Our mission is to encourage self-acceptance, change perceptions and support new conversations about mental health,” explains Balenson. “For my degree project, I was interested in utilising design as a vehicle for a positive change in mindset, specifically for individuals living with mental disorders. Living With: is a line of T-shirts and interactive media that empowers the wearer’s relationship with their disorder through positive action and a small change in language.”

One $2 from each t-shirt does to Active Minds, a charity focusing on mental health issues in American college campuses. So, while these t-shirts aren’t the solution to all mental health problems, it shows people that it is ok to talk about mental illness.

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Stephanie Leo
Design Creative

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