Young Innovator in Behavioral Health Awardee

Diana Chao is a first-generation Buyi Chinese-American from California. Diana founded Letters to Strangers (L2S) at 14-years-old after bipolar disorder and a blinding eye condition nearly ended her life. By beginning to heal through letters, she discovered that writing is humanity distilled into ink. Today, L2S is the largest global youth-for-youth mental health nonprofit, exchanging 60000+ letters and impacting over half a million people in over 70 countries over the last ten years. L2S published the world’s first youth-for-youth mental health guidebook for free, currently taught in schools worldwide, and also operates the first toll-free 24/7 pan-African mental health hotline out of its nationally-recognized Liberia office. Diana was honored by two U.S. Presidents at the White House, named a 2021 Princess Diana Legacy Award Winner, and 2020 L'Oréal Paris Women of Worth. She graduated from Princeton University with Honors and from the University of Oxford as a Skoll Scholar.