Pain exists in many forms.  How easy it is to stop pain when it is visible; we stop what is hurting us.

If only it were always that simple.

People want it to be.  They ask us to stop hurting ourselves.  Our society asks us to stop being depressed, stop feeling anxious.

“Eat better.”  

“Exercise.”  

“Drink less.”  

“Drop the needle.”  

“Stop feeling that way.”

“Don’t think about it.”  

“You don’t have anything to be sad about.”  

“There are people with real problems.”

Mental health battles are scary.  And frustrating.  And dark.  For everyone.  For those of us falling down, for those watching us fall, and for those who are trying to walk us back to safety.  When pain is internal and invisible, it feels impossible.

Impossible to talk about.  Impossible to admit. We don’t want to be a burden or labeled as crazy and incapable.  We don’t want to be told why we shouldn’t feel this way.

It is more than a feeling.

It is a pain so deep that a black hole ends first.

Why am I telling you this?

For context.  And to share with you how Love Will Foundation began.

We didn’t start as mental health anything.  We started as two wives of husbands who were friends; two moms with their own missions: a blogger and a designer.

Our first message was to #stophate. We applied this message to a specific cause: bullying.  There is more hate being expelled behind computer screens than on playgrounds.  That mentality transcends the internet; it becomes an attitude of intolerance within our society.  In the worst of cases it translates into violence.  Our mission was simple: stop hate in our words, stop hate in our thoughts, stop hate in our actions.

We took our message to a t-shirt and we sold it.  As luck would have it, we weren’t the only ones who wanted hate to stop because YOU bought our shirts.  YOU supported our mission.  Profits from sales on those t-shirts were donated to an organization that has dedicated itself to putting an end to bullying: Pacer’s National Bullying Prevention Center.

Then, YOU wanted that message to be given to our youth and we did too.  We designed #kindnessmatters t-shirts…

… because it does.

Once again, YOU supported our cause.  We continued our anti-bullying campaign and donated the proceeds of those shirts to Megan Meier Foundation.

And then, the blogger and designer wanted to merge their ideas into a new one: Hashtag Love Will.

After all, we firmly believe it.

Our first project as Hashtag Love Will was to raise money and supplies for kindness matters bags.  We once again joined forces with you, our community, and collected needed supplies for Project Safe Space in St. Louis.  Through YOUR kindness we were able to donate 58 bags.

We began thinking about our next charity.  We spent some time searching our souls for causes that spoke out loud to us.  We arrived at mental health.  Our lives personally affected by the stigma surrounding mental illness, the lack of resources available in our community, and the cost of those resources.

There, in the midst of silent battles, Love Will Foundation was born.

Our mission at Love Will Foundation is to provide free counseling for eligible individuals, build a center of hope and compassion through community engagements, and educate to stand against the mental health stigma.

We support our mission through donations, fundraisers, community events, Love Will Voices, and Shop Love Will.  All of the profits from Shop Love Will are donated back to Love Will Foundation; to fund our mission.

We hope you like what you see here.  We hope that you will shop for a cause. We hope that you will help us stand against the stigma.  Stand for those who are in the middle of seemingly invisible wars; so that they are not shamed into silence.  So that when they do discover the courage to ask for help, they also know where to find it. So that once they find help, they can also afford it.

We hope you will continue to join us.  To fight with us.

To let the kindness of humanity overpower the fear of our differences.