CLARKSVILLE, Ind. — Just off Lewis and Clark Parkway in Clarksville, a mom is on a mission.
Tanisha Frederick is busy turning a suite in a plaza of the Green Tree Mall into a space to empower girls.
“I’m really excited about this center,” she said.
The center will be the new base for Frederick’s nonprofit called BAYA, which stands for Beautiful As You Are. She started it seven years ago during a time that wasn’t easy.
“My daughter, she was bullied very bad,” said Frederick. “She couldn’t find friends, she couldn’t fit in. They would make fun of her skin color, her hair, her posture, she’s too skinny, she’s too tall. She just began to internalize that and eventually it came out in self harm.”
Frederick says at one point her daughter was hospitalized.
“Writing negative affirmations about herself and how she didn’t want to live anymore, she wanted to die,” she said.
They went through therapy as a family.
“It was actually hard, and me and my daughter tell our story because I wasn’t positive,” said Frederick.
But she says it opened her eyes to the issues of mental health, low self-esteem and suicide rates in teens.
“Just seeing how many of her friends were actually dealing with the same thing,” said Frederick. “I would always say Jasmine you’re beautiful as you are, you’re beautiful as you are, and this was birthed out of that.”
She created BAYA in an effort to help others. She started with just seven girls at her church. It’s since grown to more than 300 girls.
“They help you with your self esteem and help you build yourself as a person,” said Jasmine Bradley, who has been in the program at least five years.
“Its kind of changed my life,” said Alyssa Ames, a 9 year old in the program.
Mary Nix, who has a granddaughter in the program says she’s seen a difference through it, “She feel’s safe, she feels welcomed, she feels loved.”
But Nix says it’s also a place for the family.
“It’s a place for us to just let go too,” said Nix.
The new center has space for positive affirmations, something Frederick says she adds to many exercises in the program. It will house monthly classes, has space for movies and has a decompression room.
“This is a very special room to me,” said Frederick in the decompression room. “My daughter said if she had a room like this, she wouldn’t have done a lot of things she did to hurt herself.”
Frederick’s daughter is now away at college, but she’s also an inspiration in the new center.
“Just to see her go from not even wanting to look at herself in the mirror to going to school on a track scholarship and loving who she is. That’s my best story, is my baby,” said Frederick.
But she hopes to add hundreds more good stories through her nonprofit.
“We’re going to do the same workshops we did with her to kind of reprogram her and just get her to realize you are more than your reflection in the mirror,” said Frederick. “You’re so much more than what people say about you. You’re more than that.”
That center is officially opening its doors on March 21st.
Everything is free to the girls who want to participate. Frederick says they are looking for volunteers and donors to support the center. For more information on the center, click here.
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