Born and raised in the poorer parts of Northern Pasadena, California, Sky Lea Ross had to navigate the resources available to her at a very young age. Having a family history of untreated, chronic mental & physical illnesses as well as disabilities, she was exposed to abuse and neglect, causing her to be removed from her home and placed into foster care at the age of 15.

Sky did not see this as a negative experience, but rather, considered it a miracle. She was brought into a safe home and introduced to a loving and supportive foster mother.

Being an avid writer ever since she was a little girl, Sky wishes to share her poems, lyrics, novels, short stories, articles, and autobiography with the world to inspire others as well as prove that one can heal, grow, and learn from their traumas and pain.

Jeanie Walsh was just a small-town girl from the East Coast with Hollywood Dreams, trying to make it to the top in the fashion industry while being challenged daily with bipolar, borderline personality disorder, anxiety disorder, and dissociative fugue. Her father told her she was wired wrong since she was a child, but it only fueled the fire inside of her to fight and prove to herself that her mental illness does not define her. Her book is titled “Wired Wrong” and you can find it on Amazon.

Gabe Howard is an award-winning podcast host, author, and sought-after speaker. In 2003, he was diagnosed with bipolar and anxiety disorders after being committed to a psychiatric hospital.

Gabe hosts the weekly Inside Mental Health podcast for Healthline Media and is the author of Mental Illness is an Asshole and Other Observations. He has appeared in numerous publications, including bipolar magazine, WebMD, Healthline.com, and the Stanford Online Medical Journal. He’s been a guest on several podcasts, including The One You Feed, The Savvy Psychologist, and Out of Patients.

Gabe makes his home in the suburbs of Columbus, Ohio. He lives with his supportive and patient wife, Kendall, and a Miniature Schnauzer dog that he never wanted, but now can’t imagine life without.

Cory Goodrich is a Jeff Award winning actress for her roles as Mother in Drury Lane Oakbrook’s acclaimed production of Ragtime, and as June Carter Cash in the Jeff nominated Johnny Cash revue, Ring of Fire at Mercury Theater Chicago, where she was also seen as Alice in The Addams Family, and Alma in The Christmas Schooner, and Carol Brady in the hilarious war between the Partridges and the Bradys in The Bardy Bunch.

She is also a singer/songwriter, producer, writer, and mother of two.

Sophia Falco is a faithful poet since she finds poetry essential to her understanding of the universe. She is the author of: Farewell Clay Dove (UnCollected Press, 2021), and she is a dedicated volunteer blogger for The International Bipolar Foundation (IBPF) since April 2020. In addition, she is the author of her award-winning chapbook The Immortal Sunflower (UnCollected Press, 2019), the winner of the Mirabai Prize for Poetry, and was nominated for a Pushcart Prize. Furthermore, Falco graduated magna cum laude along with the highest honors in the Literature Department at the University of California, Santa Cruz. Her Bachelor of Arts degree is in intensive literature with a creative writing concentration in poetry. She loves to take long walks on the beach to be in the presence of the water, and to witness the ocean’s vastness, blueness, and beauty.

At twenty-two, I was a young professional, a recent engineering graduate with a job at Texas Instruments. Three months later, after an unplanned, whirlwind trip to California, with who I thought was the love of my life, I landed at Fuller Memorial Hospital where I was diagnosed with bipolar.
After a decade of stability, feeling that the medication had dulled my creative spark, I quit the lithium. My life was good for five years off medication, and I felt like I was free, with more energy and creativity. I thought I was cured, but bipolar wasn’t so easily conquered.