Each year millions of Americans face the reality of living with a mental health condition. Yassin Hall has lived through it…
She is a Mental Health Advocate, Educator, and Motivational Speaker. Born and raised on St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands, she has been seen on CBS and PBS. She resides in Atlanta, Georgia and is the visionary, Founder and Program Manager of Milestones Mom’s Support Group, an entity providing support and resources to Mom’s who share similar unspoken experiences and challenges of raising a child suffering from some form of mental illness.
Hall is a certified CIT and Mental Health First Aid Responder, Entrepreneur, Real Estate Mogul, Life Mentor, and Dance Mom. Her childhood fascination with fashion ignited her interest to pursue modeling and designing at age 12. while modeling gained the young island beauty tremendous notoriety locally and internationally, there was much greater notoriety surrounding her publicly. It stemmed from Yassin’s mother’s battle, and unfortunate demise, after living with schizophrenia.
Witnessing her mother suffers a mental breakdown before her childhood eyes, and almost losing her young life by the hands of the very person that was supposed to love, nurture and protect her, she was raised by her maternal grandmother and paternal uncle while bearing the public shame and stigma of her mother’s mental illness.
The stigma was a huge burden and obstacle that could’ve easily derailed her will to persevere and fight towards the destiny that she credits God with ordaining. Her story is one of turmoil and redemption that has propelled her to champion the cause of mental illness and embrace her staple messaging “It’s okay to not be okay”.
She wants her story as a child living with a mother that was mentally ill to inspire, save, and break the curse through her mission of acceptance, education, and treatment.
Yassin has traveled the country and worked closely with the Department of Mental Health to bring awareness to communities deteriorating with many undiagnosed and untreated mentally ill people. She is convinced that this cycle can be broken so that millions suffering from depression, anxiety, and mental disorders can fight to find their own ordained destiny.
She has devoted her time, services and efforts to numerous organizations dedicated to this cause. This dedication includes NAMI (National Alliance on Mental Illness) and serving as a Presenter on the organization’s behalf for “Ending the Silence”. She is teaching mental health from her lived experience to high school students, along with her many other affiliations and her work with mental illness in the Caribbean and U.S.
Twisted Love Book Synopsis: Growing up with a schizophrenic mother meant embarrassment, fear, shame, and anticipation of the unexpected. In her book, Journey Untold – Twisted Love, Yassin and co-author, Loán, unravel the strings of childhood and mend it with goals and achievements of adulthood.
Yassin uses two voices — one to tell the story and one to reflect her inner thoughts to the reader. Yassin explains street experiences regarding her mother. How do these events affect the Virgin Islands’ small African American community where ‘all eyes are on you’? Next, the plot to escape from her mother is unfolded. Does Yassin survive?
Yassin’s life takes a twist when her grandmother realizes something that makes Yassin come alive and so provided instructions on how to sew. She gives Yassin the creative freedom to design her own version and style.
Yassin begins modeling which builds up her public confidence while still struggling with her own inner confidence.
Shortly thereafter, though, she gets pregnant. What should she do?
More setbacks yet blessings come. The rest of the book unveils how the life of Yassin’s mother helped Yassin to keep her head focused and eventually own many successful businesses.
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