About the Project

As the world emerged out of the COVID-19 pandemic, more than ever before, individuals and communities were prepared to initiate conversations about a previously ignored and overlooked aspect of individual and community health — mental health. With many individuals narrating and sharing their experiences of struggles with mental health, one couldn’t help but wonder how the ability to understand and address the trials and tribulations of the mind one encounters was a privilege, a privilege available to only a select few of the global population. This laid the foundations of The Sunshine Collective as it came into being in 2023 — a foundation of compassion and care held together by the roots of psychology and science to ameliorate the existing fissures of concerns about access and inequities that overshadow mental health care in India. By centering its focus on adolescent girls from underprivileged communities, the hope of this social initiative is to build textual resources and make meaningful interventions to build a safe collective of sisterhood and address key mental health concerns along with associated bodily changes that girls experience as they enter adolescence. By disseminating key information about the scientific basis of hormones and neurotransmitters impacting mental health, and creating original story books discussing common mental health concerns impacting adolescent girls, we hope to educate and empower individuals from underserved communities and make psychological well-being accessible and informed. Together, we hope to be a ray of sunshine that shines through even on a hazy day, empowering young girls to envision a bright future.