To Write Love Is All You Need
Nonprofit To Write Love on Her Arms offers hope to those struggling with depression and addictionwritten by Matt Sullivan
Jamie Tworkowski guesses that he spends almost half the year on the road. When SMACK caught up with the founder and creative director of To Write Love on Her Arms-- a nonprofit with a mission statement dedicated to “finding help for people struggling with depression, addiction, self-injury and suicide”—he had just returned home to Florida after speaking at a school in upstate New York and participating at a TED Talk in Los Angeles. “I’m trying to cut it back a bit,” he says.
But the organization Tworkowski started in 2006 as little more than a MySpace page has grown into an international movement. To Write Love on Her Arms was originally a short story Tworkowski wrote about the five days he spent with a friend before she entered treatment for her struggles with addiction and self-injury. He created the MySpace page and started selling T-shirts to help fund his friend’s treatment. Other friends in bands like Switchfoot and Anberlin took up the cause, sharing the story with fans. Soon more bands were sharing, the movement grew, and TWLOHA has been a Warped Tour staple ever since.
“I think music is allowed to be really honest, and music is allowed to ask questions to remind us that we’re allowed to ask questions,” says Tworkowski. “We’re allowed to feel things. We’re allowed to raise our voice. For people who write songs or even people who appreciate songs, music is such a powerful outlet, especially for things that are difficult in life; yet, when it comes to those things in everyday relationships or conversations, a lot of times we don’t know if we’re allowed to go there.”
Encouraging more open and honest conversations is something Tworkowski mentions frequently, and it’s the core of the nonprofit’s goals. “We see ourselves in a unique position, kind of as a bridge or as a middleman,” he explains. “In a way, we’re just trying to redirect people, trying to encourage people to ask for help in their own community. Certainly we’re talking about and believe in professional help, but I think with that we’re also encouraging people to be honest and have honest conversations with their friends. We’re hoping that everyone has some kind of support system, and a lot of times it starts there.”
The nonprofit currently employs a little over a dozen staff members and a handful of interns at its headquarters in Melbourne, FL, and there are more than 80 student-led Uchapters across the country, plus one in Canada and one in New Zealand. And while Tworkowski continues to travel from campus to campus with the TWLOHA message, he spoke at the TED Talk with the hope that the video that comes from it might resonate online like his short story did in 2006.
“At the end of the day,” he says, “what we hope people take away is just knowing that, whatever you’re dealing with, whatever questions, whatever pain or struggles, you’re not alone in that place and you deserve friends; you deserve a support system, a community of people around you, people who help shoulder the weight of your burdens and the things that are heavy.”
But the organization Tworkowski started in 2006 as little more than a MySpace page has grown into an international movement. To Write Love on Her Arms was originally a short story Tworkowski wrote about the five days he spent with a friend before she entered treatment for her struggles with addiction and self-injury. He created the MySpace page and started selling T-shirts to help fund his friend’s treatment. Other friends in bands like Switchfoot and Anberlin took up the cause, sharing the story with fans. Soon more bands were sharing, the movement grew, and TWLOHA has been a Warped Tour staple ever since.
“I think music is allowed to be really honest, and music is allowed to ask questions to remind us that we’re allowed to ask questions,” says Tworkowski. “We’re allowed to feel things. We’re allowed to raise our voice. For people who write songs or even people who appreciate songs, music is such a powerful outlet, especially for things that are difficult in life; yet, when it comes to those things in everyday relationships or conversations, a lot of times we don’t know if we’re allowed to go there.”
Encouraging more open and honest conversations is something Tworkowski mentions frequently, and it’s the core of the nonprofit’s goals. “We see ourselves in a unique position, kind of as a bridge or as a middleman,” he explains. “In a way, we’re just trying to redirect people, trying to encourage people to ask for help in their own community. Certainly we’re talking about and believe in professional help, but I think with that we’re also encouraging people to be honest and have honest conversations with their friends. We’re hoping that everyone has some kind of support system, and a lot of times it starts there.”
The nonprofit currently employs a little over a dozen staff members and a handful of interns at its headquarters in Melbourne, FL, and there are more than 80 student-led Uchapters across the country, plus one in Canada and one in New Zealand. And while Tworkowski continues to travel from campus to campus with the TWLOHA message, he spoke at the TED Talk with the hope that the video that comes from it might resonate online like his short story did in 2006.
“At the end of the day,” he says, “what we hope people take away is just knowing that, whatever you’re dealing with, whatever questions, whatever pain or struggles, you’re not alone in that place and you deserve friends; you deserve a support system, a community of people around you, people who help shoulder the weight of your burdens and the things that are heavy.”