Throughout high school, Bianca Ford always noticed problems with her family. She noticed her mother was loud, and angry at the world, and was curious about what was wrong with her. 

Growing up, Ford heard stories about having family members that drink themselves to death and committed suicide. She did a family genogram to see her lineage on her mother’s side and saw her family in shambles because of mental health. 

Ford then internalized the history of her family lineage and thought of a way she can handle and figure out what is wrong with her family. She always knew not to ask what is wrong with an individual but to find out what is going on. 

“I look at my family members that never had the resources where they knew it was there and they didn’t receive it or they didn’t know at all, and that’s what pushed me and went fully into it,” said Ford.   

Ford knew she wanted to work in a field involved in humanities where she is helping individuals. Early on in college, she took a psychology class that intrigued and connected her with situations with her, her family, and her friends. 

“It was very interesting to see how the mind can work and what ways people can kind of have challenges that will make them act a certain way and I always thought that was very cool.”  

Less than 10% of African Americans are mental health partitioners, mental health providers, psychologists. A high rate of African Americans is undiagnosed and have issues they do not wish to go speak about or understand what they are going through. Ford wants to be part of that 10% and help the Black community.  

“I just knew that I didn’t want to see the Black community continue to struggle with things that they don’t have to struggle with, there’s answers out there, and it’s just a matter of we didn’t seek those answers.”  

Ford is on her way to achieving her master’s degree in clinical mental health counseling in June 2022 at North Carolina A and T State University. 

What led you to become a mental health advocate? 

My Family, just working at them. Knowing that everything I studied from my undergraduate degree and all the definitions I learned. Being really consumed with the idea of being mentally fit because across the board I always seen that people may care about being fit like gym wise but a lot of times I just see that people slack off when it comes to mental health. Being an advocate in my community empowers me because I can see this stuff is working well with kids and if these tools work with people I work with on a day-to-day basis (kids), there is no telling of what I can do in the future. It just gives me a lot of hope every day.  

Why did you decide to create a YouTube channel? 

I had a YouTube channel already, I used to do fashion, make-up, etc. But once COVID hit for me, I wasn’t making content, I didn’t know why I wasn’t making content at the time. But thinking back it’s because we were forced to be regular again, you know you get kind of like a snap to reality, and reality really set in for me. I had a lot of friends that were messaging me, calling me that they are struggling, dealing with alcohol issues, substance abuse, and all these serious topics, I didn’t necessarily get tired of talking about it, I just knew that the universe was telling me “Hey so many people need help during this time, we can’t sit on this mental health expertise and let people sit here and suffer.” It really forced me to change everything. I deleted all the fashion stuff, clothing, make-up, and now I’m strictly speaking to the Black community, telling them these are the signs of such and such, and if you have these signs go seek help. Recently people have been following me and I don’t know who they are but to be that resource for them, means a lot. 

Do you have other future goals in the upcoming future? 

As of right now, my future goals will be to complete my counseling degree. I keep having these visions of just continuing to spread my hope. I keep seeing myself opening something like a house, I manifest on it, I journal on it, I see a house in the woods where a lot of people are scared to go but I’m not. I see a safe haven for individuals that don’t understand what they’re dealing with and don’t have anyone to speak to. I want to open that house for strictly counseling services, for mental health services, teaming up with great individuals that are looking forward to helping the African American Community and making a change.    

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

Keep going. When life gives you lemons you gotta make lemonade. The quicker you understand that everyone has pain, everybody has something that there dealing with, and the quicker we notice that it will push us towards a purpose, and it will push us to a way to possibly help whatever were struggling with and try to give people a platform where they can help and get the resource they need. I say all that to say don’t give up. We always have to remain vigilant and remember our why. That’s something I try to remember every day is to remember my Why and Why I’m doing what I do.  

Follow thatgirlvonnii on Instagram, Follow thatgirlvonnii on Twitter, and Subscribe to thatgirlvonnii on Youtube