Nevadan leads nonprofit to curb suicide
On Dec. 23, 2010, Emma White survived a suicide attempt. She was just 15.
It was after years of harassment and stalking at a Reno high school. Fortunately, she was interrupted during her attempt.
Now, she’s working to reach out to people in mental health crises in Nevada and the U.S., specifically focusing on ages 10 to 24. She started a suicide prevention nonprofit, Life Is Worth It, in the crucible of the COVID-19 pandemic, when youth suicide rates were higher than expected.
“There was a large conversation about, ‘Do we wait?’ ” White told the Reno Gazette Journal. “But the more conversations we had, the more reports that came out about isolation and how our youth were struggling... we knew the pandemic was going to impact people, so we moved forward with it.
“It was one of the best decisions that we could have made because not only did we survive it, we were able to provide hope and help for people.”
White is the USA TODAY Woman of the Year for Nevada.
In addition to serving as president of Life Is Worth It, White’s work includes serving as the Nevada’s youth suicide prevention coordinator and the state’s project manager for the school-based mental health program Project AWARE. She also hosts a podcast and delivers TED talks on mental health advocacy, and is working to implement mental health curriculum in all Nevada high schools within the next five years.
“It’s cool and it’s a nightmare,” she told the Gazette Journal. “Your heart races every time you say it.”
The latest figures show Nevada is among the states with the highest death rates by suicide in the country, at 21.5 deaths per 100,000 residents. White talked with the Gazette Journa about how she’s combating youth suicide in the U.S., and how she stays motivated.
This conversation has been edited for length and clarity. Question: Who paved the way for you?
Answer: Every single person who has advocated for suicide prevention before me has paved the way for me and the Nevada Office of Suicide Prevention because they’ve been doing this work since 2005. I feel like they’ve allowed me to help pave the way for other suicide survivors and give them that power to share their story and help other people. What is your proudest moment?
I feel like my proudest moment is launching a nonprofit organization during the pandemic. It was September of 2020 that we launched, we made it through the pandemic and are growing nationally. I am just so proud that not only did we launch, which is a crazy thing to do during the pandemic, but to be here and to be growing – because so many other nonprofits and organizations didn’t survive that.
What is your definition of courage? Courage is the ability to show up as yourself, despite whatever people might say or do to deter what you want to do. It takes a lot of courage to share the hardest parts of your life, right?
I also think it takes courage to lift others, amplify their voices and be able to help them share their story as well. And then, of course, helping other people find their voice. Is there a guiding principle or mantra you tell yourself?
Everything does happen for a reason, as cliché as that sounds – I’m not one for clichés. You’re here for a reason and everything does happen for reason, even if it’s bad or good, it all puts you to where you’re supposed to be.
How do you overcome adversity? When I started out in this work a lot of times I would hear things like, “You don’t look like a suicide survivor. How could someone who’s a varsity athlete struggle with depression?”
And I think that adversity really sparked a fire in me to get people to understand that it doesn’t discriminate, and that anybody can struggle.