Diana Chao
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Diana Chao (born c. 1998–1999) is an American mental health advocate and founder of Letters to Strangers, the largest global youth-for-youth mental health nonprofit.[1][2][3] The organization has reached over 500,000 people through more than 100 chapters in 72 countries.[4][5] She founded the organization in 2013 when she was 14 years old.[4]
Early life
Chao was born in Guizhou, China.[6] She is from the Buyi ethnic minority.[7] She immigrated to Southern California with her family at age nine and her family settled in Claremont, California.[6][8] She knew only basic English words when she arrived and her parents did not speak English.[1][9]
Chao was diagnosed with bipolar disorder at age 13 and was also diagnosed with uveitis.[10][11] The condition caused temporary blindness.[12] She experienced multiple suicide attempts and her younger brother found her after one attempt.[10][13]
Education
Chao attended Princeton University and graduated with honors in 2021.[7] She majored in geosciences.[14] She worked as a NASA astrophysicist and conducted research for the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.[7]
Chao received an MBA from the University of Oxford and received a Skoll Scholarship.[15][16] The Skoll Scholarship is a fully-funded scholarship for social entrepreneurs.[16]
Letters to Strangers
Chao founded Letters to Strangers in October 2013 when she was 14 years old.[4][7] She started it as a student club at her high school in Southern California when she was a sophomore.[4][17]
Letters to Strangers is a youth-run mental health nonprofit that seeks to destigmatize mental illness and works to increase access to affordable mental health treatment.[4] The organization operates through anonymous letter-writing exchanges where people write letters to strangers and the letters are distributed randomly.[4][12] The organization also provides peer education programs and conducts policy-based advocacy.[4]
Letters to Strangers has reached over 500,000 people and operates in 72 countries.[4] It has chapters on six continents and the organization has exchanged more than 60,000 letters.[4][7] The organization has over 100 registered chapters.[5]
The organization published a mental health guidebook written by youth and it is the first youth-for-youth mental health guidebook.[15] The guidebook is taught in schools worldwide and is available for free.[15]
The organization operates a mental health hotline in Liberia and it is the first toll-free pan-African mental health hotline.[12][15] The hotline operates 24 hours per day and the Liberian national government now funds it.[15][12]
Recognition
Chao was honored at the White House by President Barack Obama in 2016 and received the U.S. Presidential Scholar Award.[18][19] She was honored at the White House by President Joe Biden in 2022.[18]
She received the Unilever Young Entrepreneurs Award in 2018 and was the youngest person to win the award.[6][17]
Oprah Magazine named her a Health Hero in 2019.[17] She won the Global Changemakers Award in 2019 and was the only American winner.[17]
L'Oréal Paris named her a Woman of Worth in 2020 and she received a $20,000 grant to support her work.[17][8] She received a Princess Diana Award in 2021 and received the Legacy Award.[7][18]
She received a Daily Point of Light Award from Points of Light.[8]
She was a Three Dot Dash Global Teen Leader in 2017 and was selected as a Global Teen Leader by the We Are Family Foundation.[6][20]
Adobe selected her for its inaugural Top Talents class and she is a conceptual photographer.[17] Her photography series on Minority Mental Health Month received over 2 million views.[17]
Chao was a youth delegate at the World Economic Forum and the We Are Family Foundation sponsored her attendance.[12]
Other work
Chao volunteered as a counselor for the National Suicide Prevention Hotline and also volunteered for the Crisis Text Chat.[10] She is a member of the Mental Health America Young Leaders Council.[7]
She gave a TEDxTeen speech in Times Square.[19]
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 "Diana Chao: 20-Year-Old Artist, Writer, Scientist, and Philanthropist". Elite Lifestyle Magazine. January 25, 2019. Retrieved 2025-10-18.
- ↑ "Diana Chao". Commonwealth Fund. Retrieved 2025-10-18.
- ↑ "Letters to Strangers". iF Design. Retrieved 2025-10-18.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 4.5 4.6 4.7 4.8 "About". Letters to Strangers. Retrieved 2025-10-18.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 "Letters To Strangers". GuideStar. Retrieved 2025-10-18.
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 "20-Year-Old Diana Chao is Destigmatizing Mental Illness With Letters to Strangers". DoSomething.org. Retrieved 2025-10-18.
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 7.3 7.4 7.5 7.6 "Diana Chao". Commonwealth Fund. Retrieved 2025-10-18.
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 "Suicide Survivor Offers Lifeline to Youth through "Letters to Strangers" Volunteerism". Points of Light. April 21, 2022. Retrieved 2025-10-18.
- ↑ "Diana Chao". Kokoro. Retrieved 2025-10-18.
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 10.2 "Diana Chao". The Diana Award. Retrieved 2025-10-18.
- ↑ "Women of Worth 2020: Meet Diana Chao". L'Oréal Paris. Retrieved 2025-10-18.
- ↑ 12.0 12.1 12.2 12.3 12.4 "Diana Chao '21 Is Reaching Young People Through 'Letters to Strangers'". Princeton Alumni Weekly. Retrieved 2025-10-18.
- ↑ "Diana Chao: A Mental Health Advocate Harnessing The Power of Collective Healing". Pulse Spikes. January 8, 2021. Retrieved 2025-10-18.
- ↑ "Diana Chao joins our Team!". Kinetic Analysis. July 13, 2023. Retrieved 2025-10-18.
- ↑ 15.0 15.1 15.2 15.3 15.4 "Diana Chao". Behavioral Health Tech. Retrieved 2025-10-18.
- ↑ 16.0 16.1 "Our new Skoll Scholars have arrived, as they set out to build a better world". Saïd Business School. Retrieved 2025-10-18.
- ↑ 17.0 17.1 17.2 17.3 17.4 17.5 17.6 "Diana Chao". One Young World. Retrieved 2025-10-18.
- ↑ 18.0 18.1 18.2 "Our Team". Letters to Strangers. Retrieved 2025-10-18.
- ↑ 19.0 19.1 "Diana Chao". TEDxTeen. October 23, 2017. Retrieved 2025-10-18.
- ↑ "Diana Chao". We Are Family Foundation. June 19, 2021. Retrieved 2025-10-18.
External links
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