Jazz Thornton
spokeswoman
25-year-old Jazz Thornton is using her difficult past as ammunition for a thriving future. With friend Genevieve Mora, Jazz founded the website Voices of Hope in 2016 as a place to provide support and hope to teens struggling with mental illness or losing hope.
Jazz, who survived 14 suicide attempts, put herself through film school to break the silence around mental illness. She enrolled in South Seas Film and Television School in 2016 to learn how to tell the stories of young people like her who have suffered from depression and been suicidal. She had been there only a few months when she created a short film called Dear Suicidal Me which has had more than 80 million views after being covered by international media.
Jazz is now an internationally sought after mental health advocate and last month celebrated the launch of her new book Stop Surviving, Start Fighting, a hard-hitting, thought-provoking account of surviving suicide attempts and moving on to a better life, which provides practical help and inspiration to anyone affected by depression or suicide.