Got a question? Call the Latina, a podcast by peers

Margaret Garcia's grant funded podcast, called Llama a La Latina, or Call the Latina in English, is designed, she says, "to build a research and peer informed pathway for youth young adults to understand their mental health in the all confusing time of 17-25 years old."

The education initiative is being designed alongside her non profit, Latina Psychology, which, as she puts it, "is aiming to advance Latina presence and representation in the mental health field through promoting opportunities, dissecting research, and sharing mental health information to break the stigma my community faces."

“My goal is to properly inform my peers about their mental health in a fun yet engaging manner.”

Margaret Garcia

Her method is peer advisors, who review the scripts and help research them, and calls for personal perspectives so peers can tell their own stories, with research used to support what is said. Pop culture carries it: anime, and the conflicts of the moment, to keep the podcast entertaining. The reports already written for young people are part of the problem as she sees it. "Much of the publications and reports aimed at youth, fail to reach them successfully, and I hope to shed light on them," she says.

Before her own project came a run of other roles: youth consultant at Stanford University, member of the Mental Health America Young Leader's Council, Youth Board Vice President of the California Youth Empowerment Network, and more. Serving in those positions, she says, is what pushed her to keep going on mental health awareness and access. In the legal realm she created content campaigning for student mental health disability rights under the Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law. "As a result, it felt natural to create something of my own," she says.