Photography by contributor Katie McLaughlin, a teenager from Connecticut. Katie was first diagnosed with bipolar disorder and anxiety when she was thirteen years old. She has since been hospitalized many times due to both manic and depressive episodes. Thanks to medication, therapy, family, and friends, she is finally starting to live life to the fullest… one photo at a time.

About this photo: “Everyone is wired in their own way, especially when it comes to a mental illness. The following quote is from a woman named Brené Brown and it goes like this: ‘You are imperfect, you are wired for struggle, but you are worthy of love and belonging.’ This is a perfect description of how we should be living our lives, with or without a mental illness. We need to realize and love our imperfections. We need to experience agony so we will know what real happiness and success feels like. No matter who you are or what you’ve been through, you will always be worthy of love. Nobody should feel as if the world would be better off without them, because everyone belongs to the world and a mental illness should never stop you from believing that.”

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