On the outside Tiffany Shivers had it all together. At just 25, she had both her bachelor’s and master’s degrees and was working her dream job in Chicago. But in the fall of 2015, she had a panic attack, devolving into a mental health breakdown that caused her to question everything about her life and what she wanted from the world.

She quit her job, moved to Los Angeles and began rebuilding.

And now, roughly a little over a year later, she’s hoping to keep other women from experiencing the same issues she did. Through Crown of Courage, a passion project she began to focus on mental health, Shivers has created the #StressFreeBlackGirlChallenge- a month-long social media campaign to get black women discussing self-care and committing to bettering their mental and emotional health.

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“January is the most stressful month of the year,” she said, explaining the project. “After the holidays, everything’s coming to a close, you have to go to work. All of the joy from the holiday is over. So this challenge is all about really prioritizing self-care. Black women don’t do it enough. We’re always putting someone else first.”

“Whether it’s eating healthy, taking time to read a book, or take a day off,” she continued. “I want women to really show how they’re doing self-care.”

And by having the hashtag all of the posts will be in one place so women can scroll through to see how users are taking care of themselves, ideally offering new ways for self-care or simply releasing the guilt many women have when they take time to focus on themselves.

“I firmly believe black women are the most under-appreciated in the universe. I feel like just in the sense black women will do anything for the people they love.” – Shivers

Additionally, Shivers is asking that women tag three other women in their posts, which will spread the movement further. Ultimately, while self-care tends to be a mostly a private and solo activity, a community focus will ensure it becomes a new norm.

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Shivers said she’s focusing specifically on black women because she believes they are the group most likely to skip over their mental health. Shivers blamed this partly on what she calls the generational curse or a generational loop within the black female experience to always care for others before yourself because you learned to do so from older women in your family.

“My grandma was always doing for others and my mom was the same way. For us, the women in our families always do stuff for other people. I think just from you seeing your mom doing everything, you do it and when you’re daughter sees you, she does it too.”

Already many women describe an anxiety and depression from having to care for family needs on top of work needs, or the “double burden.” However, black women often must do this on top of facing a number of social woes that unfairly target the black community. They must contend with lower wages for the same work while also doing twice the work to get half the attention.

Whether you’ve seen your grandmother handle an entire Thanksgiving meal yourself or your mother struggle to meet ends meet, the result is the same: this idea that strength is measured by how much you do and how little you need help doing it.

“I firmly believe black women are the most under-appreciated in the universe,” Shivers said. “I feel like just in the sense black women will do anything for the people they love. Even in my family, my mom and grandma were constantly running around for other people and don’t take care of themselves,” she said.

She added that already the black community has a tendency to skip over mental health, never really asking each other how we are or prying further past that initial “I’m fine.”

Yet, mental health issues have always been prevalent in our communities. “Black Americans are 20 percent more likely to report serious psychological distress than adult whites” and black teens are more likely to attempt suicide than white teens, according to Mental Health America.

Shivers’ challenge is the latest in an ongoing movement to focus on black mental health. From hashtag #YouGoodMan and Kid Cudi’s Facebook post before checking in to rehab for his own mental health issues, more and more black folks are discussing what’s going on inside their heads.

And Shivers’ project is a good way to move the community forward; the proactive approach on caring and healing your mental health before you reach the overwhelming level is a necessary shift. And the additional focus on community, especially on social media, where many geographic barriers are broken down allows for an even larger conversation.

Stay tuned all month as Open Mic Rochester participates in the #StressFreeBlackGirlChallenge. We’ll be speaking to Pipernilli owner, SR Davis on eating well, how we de-stress and much, much more.