Advisory Board members, Khawla and Sophie, have a conversation about the healing and creative powers of writing and storytelling. This interview is part of a series on Channel Kindness Radio in which members of Born This Way Foundation’s Advisory Board interview each other about their various experiences, perspectives, and hopes.

You can check out the podcast below and the transcript here!

Khawla A. (she/her/hers) is a junior public health researcher from Lebanon, focusing on mental health, migrant wellbeing, community health, and health promotion. She studied Public Health and Psychology in college, where she wove community engagement into her academic journey. In 2018, she served as the youth representative to the UN of the International Association of Applied Psychology, advocating for mental health and wellbeing on the international agenda.

Sophie Szew (she/her/hers) is a first-generation Jewish Latina mental health warrior from Los Angeles who is passionate about advocacy and social justice. Since recovering from an eating disorder in 2019, her writing has been published in a number of outlets, including FEAST, the Dillydoun Review, Channel Kindness, Jewtina y Co, and Detester Magazine, among others. She was also the inaugural poet to the Mayor of Beverly Hills. She is passionate about her Latina roots and founded the Youth Latinx Leadership Conference, a student-run organization that connects Latinx student leaders to the resources to succeed as future changemakers. She was able to help connect over 500 foster families to undocumented and unaccompanied child immigrants. She also spends her time bringing awareness to issues that affect BIPOC communities through her role as a Young Mental Health Leader with Mental Health America and her internship with the US House of Representatives!