my day-to-day is going very differently
than it did 12 months ago this time last
year I was the patient of severe
overwhelming and clinical depression but
I went from sleeping for 18 hours a day
most of it to waking up early this
morning in order to be on the phone with
our team of artisans and suppliers and
social workers in Africa I’m the very
recent founder of Neela a women’s
empowerment company in South Africa and
before I was that I was a freshman in
college and unlike most people who leave
school I loved it I was doing well in
classes had great friends I woke up one
morning though and my serotonin levels
were low now that’s the chemical in our
brains that makes us happy
it happened to me almost overnight my
depression is completely clinical I’m
most likely common most likely created
by hormone changes very common in
students my age it wasn’t triggered by
any one traumatic event but because of
that I couldn’t really understand it and
the months that followed this problem
would go on to completely turn my world
upside down I ended up having to leave
school and move back in with my parents
which wasn’t as bad as it sounds but in
between appointments with psychiatrists
I was taking classes at my local
community college and working a job in
retail and I once explained depression
to a friend like this even if I won a
million dollars in the lottery it
wouldn’t matter it wouldn’t make me
happy because that’s not something my
brain can do anymore I was 19 years old
at the time and couldn’t picture myself
living past 20 now experts will tell us
that depression is curable through a
combination of medication and therapy
and for the record I took the medication
no problem however I never spent a
second in therapy because it really felt
like I had nothing to say I mean nothing
bad ever happened
me but as time went on the depression
worsened and I didn’t know what to do
but I did know that if I were gonna
survive there would need to be a big
change and that’s how nila got started
at first I was expecting Milla to be a
mere distraction for myself isn’t that
all how we distract ourselves starting
companies yeah I was expecting it to be
a mere distraction for myself as I
battled with depression but it turned
out to be so much more than that and I
realized now looking back on it that
focusing on others gave my brain the
room it needed to heal and in a way I
did actually go through therapy although
it wasn’t from anyone with an actual
license for women in South Africa taught
me a lot about finding happiness and I
was able to work these learnings into an
equation happiness is there we go
happiness is what you love and helping
other people let’s start with what you
love I’m Bella and I love handbags
however that alone isn’t enough because
if taking Prozac and doing online
shopping or the secret for happiness I
would have been doing great the more
important thing here is how you’re gonna
help others that’s what’s critical now
working on a company that empowers women
in extreme poverty and makes it about
and makes and sells handbags is awesome
and so much more meaningful there we go
mm-hmm just for the record I never had a
nervous breakdown I didn’t go to South
Africa for three months alone on a whim
I knew exactly what I was doing because
I’d been before in high school once um
the high school I went to was actually a
boarding school and it was the good kind
it’s something I used to have to clarify
a lot like junior and senior year feels
good not to be a thot as much anymore
the school had an annual service trip
where seniors could go do volunteer work
in South Africa so I went and when I
arrived I was working at a charity that
takes care of children who live in a
slum or an informal settlement as it’s
called it’s kind of an after-school care
program on my very last day in South
Africa I was holding a boy who was in
kindergarten named junior and his mother
came up to me to pick him up from school
and she introduced herself and this was
my first time ever meeting a parent from
the community the conversation started
was something like this hi I’m Bella and
luckily enough believe it or not Bella
was also the name of juniors grandmother
and we started bonding immediately and
we found out that we had even more and
even more in common but when I let
heartedly asked juniors mother what she
had done that day the conversation took
a sharp turn that I wasn’t expecting
this woman broke down what we really
need are jobs she said while gripping my
arm
this woman was undeserving ly and
totally randomly born into extreme
poverty and not only that but now she
has to watch her five-year-old suffer
with her I was deeply affected by this
so when I came home I started reading
any case study I could find on poverty
in South Africa and I discovered that
unemployment really is the biggest issue
I knew I wanted to create job
opportunities for women like juniors mom
so I started working on a business plan
and then I took all my retail money from
that year I had out of school and went
back to South Africa last March I’m out
with the same organization that I
volunteered with in high school and I
sat down with them and I gave them my
pitch and while passing out photos of
handbags I’d printed off the internet I
was telling them my big idea that I
wanted to empower women that I wanted to
train them and I wanted to pay them a
living wage
which is higher than Fairtrade to make
these beautiful handbags and the leaders
of this organization loved it and next
thing I know I’m being told to wait
outside under a tree and 45 minutes goes
by and I’m looking off into the distance
and marching up the hill coming from the
community that this charity overlooked
was a team of women with the level of
determination that I’ll never forget and
they each marched up to me and
individually looked me in the eyes and
said in rehearse tingloff I’m in the
leaders of this organization had just
gone to the community and 45-minutes
this sounds great
let’s not forget something really
important right now I didn’t know what I
was doing like at all what I just showed
up there and promised I didn’t know how
to make a handbag I had to go to Cypress
Cypress right after this where I worked
with an artist for two weeks to learn
how to make the pattern which looking
back two weeks should have been more
like a month but anyways um it’s usually
also the type of thing you do before
promising to start a company that makes
handbags but it all worked out the
designs are beautiful I went back to
South Africa after that to open the
neela studio and I didn’t know it at the
time but I was entering into phase two
of my treatment plan for depression
throughout history and woven into
various cultures we’ve seen one
philosophical idea come up again and
again it’s taken on various names over
time but always has to do with the same
core idea happiness is found in helping
others today it’s commonly being called
altruism altruism is the belief that the
well-being of others is equally if not
more important than the well-being of
one’s self resulting in a greater
quality of life honestly that’s not
groundbreaking humans have believed it
in some capacity for centuries recently
this is really cool recently scientists
were able to
prove it using MRI technology and the
results said that helping other people
leads to a life that’s not only happier
but healthier more productive and more
meaningful more productive is a big one
for me I feel like working with others
gives me a sense of importance and
encourages me to start working really
really hard again which it feels like I
do 24/7 as it does with the startup
that’s a big change for a girl who used
to sleep 18 hours a day in South Africa
my role started out as a teacher but
after all of the women learned how to
make the patterns I got to do what I
really love which is inspire and as we
were working I would keep everyone
excited and engaged in what we were
doing and I would get up to make tea and
coffee as the request came up throughout
the day the goal of nila right now is
the well-being of the group we currently
have a local South African woman who’s
running our employee wellness
development we’re working on a lot of
really fun and exciting projects one of
my favorites includes having counselors
come to the studio once a week to
discuss mental health with our South
African artisans which obviously is very
close to my heart
it’s called group-based
altruism and it’s when the well-being of
an individual raises as the well-being
of the group that they’re in increases
as well we currently have four women
working on the ground in South Africa
full-time each of them is a single
mother of two two four children and in
the past four months since we’ve begun
they’ve gone from extreme poverty to
earning a living wage for a family in
Johannesburg and here’s how their
individual wellness has improved oh
there we go okay so on your left
great you’ll meet the lady the lady is a
mom of three kids two four and six and
how
she’s awake the entire day at work
amazes me and the lady is currently
working with our wellness developer to
save up and finance her first home in
the short hair and the center is matzo
pillow matzo pulao is brilliant and
wants to go to school for accounting and
it’s actually our dream to send her to
accounting school and then hire her
later on this Neela’s accountant she’s
currently taking driving lessons and
saving up for her first car next to her
isn’t a booth Leigh
nobuta has a four year old and a 14 year
old son recently she was able to
pre-register her 14 year old boy giving
is his name for high school
pre-registration for school in South
Africa is expensive but in the public
school system it’s the only way to
guarantee your child a spot and because
of her giving will be the first person
in his entire family to attend school
and he wants to go on to university and
become a lawyer at the end we have Santo
Santo is planning a trip this Christmas
to visit her extended family and her 14
year old daughter in the rural village
where they come from this is a really
important trip for Santo because her 14
year old has asked to return with her
this time and the family will be
permanently reunited in Johannesburg
which we’re all very excited about and
then that’s me in the middle
sorry as for me I was able to learn how
to cope with and ultimately cure my
depression because as the well-being of
the women in South Africa increases so
does my own
it’s called collectivism and
collectivism is altruism that benefits
an entire group of people one of my
dreams for Neela is to get people and
women all around the world involved in
this collective whether it be our
artisans in South Africa or our
customers in the US what that looks like
is allowing our customer to have a
direct relationship with the women like
I do letting them select who made their
bag who they want to empower and getting
updates from the women as big milestones
come up like getting a driver’s license
or their son’s graduation the goal here
is to yield true happiness for everyone
which we all know is something you love
and helping others so before I go let’s
find out what makes us happy it’s easy
let’s find out what makes us happy as
human beings this is the most important
thing to know about yourself what if
some day something bad happens to you
what if some day things are going great
but you wake up low on serotonins what
are you gonna do I’m telling you right
now I promise you you’re gonna want to
know exactly what you need to do to get
out so be super super specific with it
what do you love don’t think of it as a
big scary question don’t let it stop you
don’t let it slow you down it’s not what
do you love most what do you love more
than anything else in the world it’s
just one thing you love Nancy talked
about it earlier when she brought up
basketball and helping children through
that I did it was something literally as
simple as handbags that’s not the most
important part how you’re gonna help
others with it is you may have to get a
little creative with it but I recommend
obsessing over it because it yields
through genuine authentic happiness and
for me it was life-saving thank you [Applause]
than it did 12 months ago this time last
year I was the patient of severe
overwhelming and clinical depression but
I went from sleeping for 18 hours a day
most of it to waking up early this
morning in order to be on the phone with
our team of artisans and suppliers and
social workers in Africa I’m the very
recent founder of Neela a women’s
empowerment company in South Africa and
before I was that I was a freshman in
college and unlike most people who leave
school I loved it I was doing well in
classes had great friends I woke up one
morning though and my serotonin levels
were low now that’s the chemical in our
brains that makes us happy
it happened to me almost overnight my
depression is completely clinical I’m
most likely common most likely created
by hormone changes very common in
students my age it wasn’t triggered by
any one traumatic event but because of
that I couldn’t really understand it and
the months that followed this problem
would go on to completely turn my world
upside down I ended up having to leave
school and move back in with my parents
which wasn’t as bad as it sounds but in
between appointments with psychiatrists
I was taking classes at my local
community college and working a job in
retail and I once explained depression
to a friend like this even if I won a
million dollars in the lottery it
wouldn’t matter it wouldn’t make me
happy because that’s not something my
brain can do anymore I was 19 years old
at the time and couldn’t picture myself
living past 20 now experts will tell us
that depression is curable through a
combination of medication and therapy
and for the record I took the medication
no problem however I never spent a
second in therapy because it really felt
like I had nothing to say I mean nothing
bad ever happened
me but as time went on the depression
worsened and I didn’t know what to do
but I did know that if I were gonna
survive there would need to be a big
change and that’s how nila got started
at first I was expecting Milla to be a
mere distraction for myself isn’t that
all how we distract ourselves starting
companies yeah I was expecting it to be
a mere distraction for myself as I
battled with depression but it turned
out to be so much more than that and I
realized now looking back on it that
focusing on others gave my brain the
room it needed to heal and in a way I
did actually go through therapy although
it wasn’t from anyone with an actual
license for women in South Africa taught
me a lot about finding happiness and I
was able to work these learnings into an
equation happiness is there we go
happiness is what you love and helping
other people let’s start with what you
love I’m Bella and I love handbags
however that alone isn’t enough because
if taking Prozac and doing online
shopping or the secret for happiness I
would have been doing great the more
important thing here is how you’re gonna
help others that’s what’s critical now
working on a company that empowers women
in extreme poverty and makes it about
and makes and sells handbags is awesome
and so much more meaningful there we go
mm-hmm just for the record I never had a
nervous breakdown I didn’t go to South
Africa for three months alone on a whim
I knew exactly what I was doing because
I’d been before in high school once um
the high school I went to was actually a
boarding school and it was the good kind
it’s something I used to have to clarify
a lot like junior and senior year feels
good not to be a thot as much anymore
the school had an annual service trip
where seniors could go do volunteer work
in South Africa so I went and when I
arrived I was working at a charity that
takes care of children who live in a
slum or an informal settlement as it’s
called it’s kind of an after-school care
program on my very last day in South
Africa I was holding a boy who was in
kindergarten named junior and his mother
came up to me to pick him up from school
and she introduced herself and this was
my first time ever meeting a parent from
the community the conversation started
was something like this hi I’m Bella and
luckily enough believe it or not Bella
was also the name of juniors grandmother
and we started bonding immediately and
we found out that we had even more and
even more in common but when I let
heartedly asked juniors mother what she
had done that day the conversation took
a sharp turn that I wasn’t expecting
this woman broke down what we really
need are jobs she said while gripping my
arm
this woman was undeserving ly and
totally randomly born into extreme
poverty and not only that but now she
has to watch her five-year-old suffer
with her I was deeply affected by this
so when I came home I started reading
any case study I could find on poverty
in South Africa and I discovered that
unemployment really is the biggest issue
I knew I wanted to create job
opportunities for women like juniors mom
so I started working on a business plan
and then I took all my retail money from
that year I had out of school and went
back to South Africa last March I’m out
with the same organization that I
volunteered with in high school and I
sat down with them and I gave them my
pitch and while passing out photos of
handbags I’d printed off the internet I
was telling them my big idea that I
wanted to empower women that I wanted to
train them and I wanted to pay them a
living wage
which is higher than Fairtrade to make
these beautiful handbags and the leaders
of this organization loved it and next
thing I know I’m being told to wait
outside under a tree and 45 minutes goes
by and I’m looking off into the distance
and marching up the hill coming from the
community that this charity overlooked
was a team of women with the level of
determination that I’ll never forget and
they each marched up to me and
individually looked me in the eyes and
said in rehearse tingloff I’m in the
leaders of this organization had just
gone to the community and 45-minutes
this sounds great
let’s not forget something really
important right now I didn’t know what I
was doing like at all what I just showed
up there and promised I didn’t know how
to make a handbag I had to go to Cypress
Cypress right after this where I worked
with an artist for two weeks to learn
how to make the pattern which looking
back two weeks should have been more
like a month but anyways um it’s usually
also the type of thing you do before
promising to start a company that makes
handbags but it all worked out the
designs are beautiful I went back to
South Africa after that to open the
neela studio and I didn’t know it at the
time but I was entering into phase two
of my treatment plan for depression
throughout history and woven into
various cultures we’ve seen one
philosophical idea come up again and
again it’s taken on various names over
time but always has to do with the same
core idea happiness is found in helping
others today it’s commonly being called
altruism altruism is the belief that the
well-being of others is equally if not
more important than the well-being of
one’s self resulting in a greater
quality of life honestly that’s not
groundbreaking humans have believed it
in some capacity for centuries recently
this is really cool recently scientists
were able to
prove it using MRI technology and the
results said that helping other people
leads to a life that’s not only happier
but healthier more productive and more
meaningful more productive is a big one
for me I feel like working with others
gives me a sense of importance and
encourages me to start working really
really hard again which it feels like I
do 24/7 as it does with the startup
that’s a big change for a girl who used
to sleep 18 hours a day in South Africa
my role started out as a teacher but
after all of the women learned how to
make the patterns I got to do what I
really love which is inspire and as we
were working I would keep everyone
excited and engaged in what we were
doing and I would get up to make tea and
coffee as the request came up throughout
the day the goal of nila right now is
the well-being of the group we currently
have a local South African woman who’s
running our employee wellness
development we’re working on a lot of
really fun and exciting projects one of
my favorites includes having counselors
come to the studio once a week to
discuss mental health with our South
African artisans which obviously is very
close to my heart
it’s called group-based
altruism and it’s when the well-being of
an individual raises as the well-being
of the group that they’re in increases
as well we currently have four women
working on the ground in South Africa
full-time each of them is a single
mother of two two four children and in
the past four months since we’ve begun
they’ve gone from extreme poverty to
earning a living wage for a family in
Johannesburg and here’s how their
individual wellness has improved oh
there we go okay so on your left
great you’ll meet the lady the lady is a
mom of three kids two four and six and
how
she’s awake the entire day at work
amazes me and the lady is currently
working with our wellness developer to
save up and finance her first home in
the short hair and the center is matzo
pillow matzo pulao is brilliant and
wants to go to school for accounting and
it’s actually our dream to send her to
accounting school and then hire her
later on this Neela’s accountant she’s
currently taking driving lessons and
saving up for her first car next to her
isn’t a booth Leigh
nobuta has a four year old and a 14 year
old son recently she was able to
pre-register her 14 year old boy giving
is his name for high school
pre-registration for school in South
Africa is expensive but in the public
school system it’s the only way to
guarantee your child a spot and because
of her giving will be the first person
in his entire family to attend school
and he wants to go on to university and
become a lawyer at the end we have Santo
Santo is planning a trip this Christmas
to visit her extended family and her 14
year old daughter in the rural village
where they come from this is a really
important trip for Santo because her 14
year old has asked to return with her
this time and the family will be
permanently reunited in Johannesburg
which we’re all very excited about and
then that’s me in the middle
sorry as for me I was able to learn how
to cope with and ultimately cure my
depression because as the well-being of
the women in South Africa increases so
does my own
it’s called collectivism and
collectivism is altruism that benefits
an entire group of people one of my
dreams for Neela is to get people and
women all around the world involved in
this collective whether it be our
artisans in South Africa or our
customers in the US what that looks like
is allowing our customer to have a
direct relationship with the women like
I do letting them select who made their
bag who they want to empower and getting
updates from the women as big milestones
come up like getting a driver’s license
or their son’s graduation the goal here
is to yield true happiness for everyone
which we all know is something you love
and helping others so before I go let’s
find out what makes us happy it’s easy
let’s find out what makes us happy as
human beings this is the most important
thing to know about yourself what if
some day something bad happens to you
what if some day things are going great
but you wake up low on serotonins what
are you gonna do I’m telling you right
now I promise you you’re gonna want to
know exactly what you need to do to get
out so be super super specific with it
what do you love don’t think of it as a
big scary question don’t let it stop you
don’t let it slow you down it’s not what
do you love most what do you love more
than anything else in the world it’s
just one thing you love Nancy talked
about it earlier when she brought up
basketball and helping children through
that I did it was something literally as
simple as handbags that’s not the most
important part how you’re gonna help
others with it is you may have to get a
little creative with it but I recommend
obsessing over it because it yields
through genuine authentic happiness and
for me it was life-saving thank you [Applause]
Please follow and like us: