Project 99 is proud to have the opportunity to share the video “What Is Mental Health?” created by student filmmaker Ally Muzic, a Murrieta Valley High School graduate, who created it for her Gold Award for the Girl Scouts. The video is a powerful message for high school students designed to promote the importance of mental health awareness.
The video, which is filmed in locations throughout Murrieta and Oceanside with the help of several of Muzic’s friends, helps to normalize the struggle teenagers often face with mental health issues, and explores some of the options they have for reducing stress and anxiety and seeking emotional support. Most importantly, it urges all teenagers to recognize that they are not alone and that there is always someone willing to provide help.
Muzic was highly motivated to work on this project. A lifelong resident of Murrieta, she has a strong connection to Project 99 because her brother was very close with Diego Villarreal, and her mom has been very close with the Villarreal family for years. Additionally, her best friend struggled with mental health issues for years, yet managed to keep it hidden. Fortunately, she eventually sought help and is doing well now. But the fact that someone she was so close to could be suffering on the inside while maintaining a positive facade made her realize there must be many others going through the same thing. Muzic wanted to empower people who might be struggling like her friend, as well as other friends she knew who had contemplated suicide, with the tools and resources they needed to seek help.
Seeking her Gold Award for the Girl Scouts, combined with the skills she was acquiring as a cinema major at San Francisco State, provided Muzic the vehicle she needed to deliver her message. We hope you will find it as inspirational as we did.
