'There’s A Rainbow On The Other Side': Marin County Student Fights For Queer Mental Health

NOVATO, CA — In June 2024, Eva Hellmold, 19, wanted to create an art show that would provide a safe space for queer artists to showcase their work. She reached out to Youth in Arts, an organization that has provided arts education to Marin’s Special Day Classrooms and offered inclusive learning opportunities for those of all abilities, and they were excited to help host the show but asked Hellmold to curate it.

Hellmold recalled several moments that happened at that show that were significant to her and would help shape an idea that had been growing in her mind.

There was a young gender nonconforming child who was enthusiastic about submitting their art to the show. They were under the age limit but Hellmold and the Youth in Arts director made an exception. This child had recently come out to their family and the art show provided a rare opportunity for them to feel seen and embraced in a way their school, friends and community were not doing.

Hellmold recognized in this moment the importance of creating affirming space for queer youth.

There was another moment at this show that Hellmold points to as a catalyst for her next project. She was speaking with several queer people who were older than her.

“They were talking about how they had no idea that there was still a struggle with queer youth and queerness being accepted in Marin County and honestly, in the U.S., and so I think that's what a lot of people really fail to realize. The fight is far from over,” Hellmold said.

Experiences such as this, and Hellmold’s own experiences going to what she describes as a conservative religious high school — which she asked not be named due to fear of retaliation — where she feels she cannot expressively be out, led to her starting a campaign aimed at improving mental health for queer students at Marin County schools called “Break the Stigma: Rooted in Pride, We Bloom.”

"I have struggled personally with reconciling my queer identity and my religious identity, especially as someone who was raised in a Catholic environment," Hellmold said.

Hellmold was born and raised in Marin County. She grew up in Novato.

“I love Novato so much," Hellmold said. “You have that flexibility of going to Petaluma, I love to go downtown and go thrifting, and you also have the flexibility to go down to southern Marin and go to the beaches, watch the sunset, or go to San Francisco. But Novato itself is just this quiet, peaceful haven where you can go outside and you know everyone.”

Hellmold comes from a blended family and lives with her dad, her stepmom and her four siblings. Her dad emigrated from Germany in the '80s.

“He came here one summer and he thought, ‘I want to move to the U.S. I want to create my life here.’ And he did just that,” Hellmold said.

She credits her father, who works in the data-storage industry, for instilling that tenacious persistence in her. As a senior in high school, Hellmold has already built herself a strong resume. Sure, she’s had the normal teen jobs working in retail, but she has also interned for Marin County Deputy District Attorney Tom McCallister and worked on the campaign for Marin County Board of Supervisors Brian Colbert.

“I’m lucky to call Eva a friend. She’s one of the smartest, most energetic people I know and she leads with unwavering integrity,” Colbert said. “Watching her take on challenges and deliver real results has been inspiring. I can’t wait to see what she does next, because wherever she goes, she makes things better.”

Hellmold credits her time volunteering at the SPAHR Center, which supported Marin’s LGBTQIA+ community but has since closed, and taking a course through the Mental Health Advocacy Academy, provided by the mental health nonprofit Active Minds, for sparking her interest in mental health, but it was her own experiences as a young queer individual in unaccepting spaces that motivated her to start “Break the Stigma.”

“I wanted to create a space for youth in Marin in which their queer and their LGBTQ+ identity would be celebrated and uplifted and openly affirmed,” she said.

As part of the campaign, Hellmold has created a website, which she designed after teaching herself graphic design. The site, breakthestigma.net, offers mental health and queer identity resources and toolkits. She is also working with Marin County Behavioral Health and Recovery Services to launch a pilot survey to assess mental health needs among queer youth, which she will share with Marin County nonprofits and community organizers in hopes it will help them better support the queer community.

She will also be collaborating with county officials and community organizers and will be speaking at community events like she did at the April 22 Marin County Board of Supervisors meeting.

"When we avoid something like [mental health], it grows into a greater issue, and it contributes to systemic discrimination and systemic inequalities," Hellmold said. “As hard as it feels right now, there is always light on the other side, there's a rainbow on the other side. There's a life where you can live your gender identity, your sexual identity, so loudly and openly and just in a beautiful way, and be loved for who you are."