Who: Martha Tesema, 28

What: Works as a Content Strategist at Shine, a female-focused SMS- based platform

Why: She works at a platform that helps and cares for people’s mental and emotional health

Martha Tesema has always been anxious as a child but did not take her anxiety seriously because there was often a stigma around mental health and not discussed enough in cultures. Tesema’s family is from Utopia, and she did not grow up learning about anxiety and depression.

When she was a teenager, and through her early and mid-20s, there were moments in her life where she was sad, didn’t have the motivation, wasn’t prioritizing her self-care, where she would get tired in just a couple of hours of work and feel apathetic. Her anxiety would always show up in people-pleasing, having this massive fear of failure, or overthinking.

Tesema overcame her struggles by doing more research about anxiety and depression, speaking to a therapist, practicing self-care, and caring more for her mental health. In the beginning, she thought of self-care as doing bubble baths, skin-care routines, and face masks. It felt like she had to buy certain things to feel better about herself, and doing these physical care routines feels good but she also feels it’s a catalyst to feeling good.

“It’s not the face masks that make me feel good but taking the time to do it, and taking the time to care for myself, that’s the thing that feels good, not the face masks itself,” she said.

Over time she realized that self-care meant showing up in small ways that can have a tangible long-term effect. She asks for help instead of trying to do things herself and make it seem she was okay. She sets boundaries and says the word “NO,” instead of pleasing people and saying, “Yes.”

“When you do take that time to take care of yourself, you can show up for people in your community so much better,” she said. There’s this saying that “You can’t pour from an empty cup,” meaning you gotta serve your cup first and have something you can pour out. Filling your cup isn’t SELFISH, it’s NECESSARY.”

What advice would you give to young people that are struggling with the same mental health struggles you went through?

“I would encourage people to ask for help. I think the hardest part is talking about these things and opening up. There’s only so much you can do yourself, it’s okay to ask for help. I encourage people to give themselves permission to kind of let go of that burden that there carrying to whether it’s a professional, a friend, a family member, a teacher to help you. There are people to help you through this, you don’t have to do this alone. There’s this idea of like I’m the only one going through this right now and no one understands and I definitely felt that before and as I got older I realized there are so many people who have experienced this too. I can learn from their stories and the only way I can do that is by opening up myself and by being vulnerable.”

Can you explain more of what Shine is about?

“Shine is an app, it’s a community that was founded by two women of color. We try to help people take care of themselves as easily as possible and incorporate it into their everyday lives. We do that through a daily podcasting meditation and that’s called “the daily shine,” and that shows up in the app every weekday morning, it’s like a mini-podcast, mini-meditation where there’s a different theme every day and then there’s a breathing exercise. We also have a daily discussion, where a question pops up every day and people answer and discuss the question. There’s a library of over 800 meditations about a wide range of things. We have a bunch of articles in the app and online that help people take care of themselves too.”

Why did you decide to work at Shine?

“I really loved the mission of the company. I loved that it was found by two women of color. I have never worked at an organization that was found by two women of color and I thought that was important to me to be in that environment. I really love the impact we are having on our community. Many people message us every single day and tell us how the things that we’re working on are helping them in taking care of themselves, help with their depression, cope with uncertain times, and I think being apart of a job that helps people feels so great. I am so grateful to have the opportunity to do that.”

How can young people be involved at Shine? How can they benefit from it?

“There’s this really amazing community at Shine.  There’s this really incredible digital community that shows up for each other. People can get involved by downloading the app, there’s a free version and a premium version. If you download the premium version you have access to the Facebook group, where there are many people who are premium members who are also going through things and you can get real-time advice from folks. People would post about like “How do I quit my job, how do I deal with a roommate who may be isn’t the best for my mental health,” and other people from all over the world respond.”

Would you consider yourself a mental health advocate?

“Yeah, I think I am a huge mental health advocate especially in the work that I do. I think it’s really important to have people of color as mental health advocates and self-care advocates. I think there’s so much of what we see in self-care and mental health is specifically centered around a white wealthy person and being a Black woman in this space, it’s really important to make sure that a wide range of experiences is represented in the content, and our team is primarily people of color too. I consider myself an advocate and I’m glad I am one.”