“headband”) in 2008, selling flower
headbands that fan Taylor Swift helped
make famous. Ban.do now sells an array
of feel-good merchandise including
polka-dot jumpsuits, heart-shaped pool
floats and cheery-slogan notebooks.
Perhaps closest to Gotch’s heart is the
line of cursive nameplate necklaces
heralding “anxiety,” “depression” and,
yes, “bipolar,” with 100 percent of pro-
ceeds benefiting Bring Change to Mind,
a mental health awareness organiza-
tion. She hopes the necklaces can help
destigmatize mental illness—and break
the ice for more positive conversations.
As for her own mental health, which
she talks about on Instagram,
Snapchat and her podcast Jen
Gotch Is OK... Sometimes, she’s
learned to identify the onset of a
manic or depressive episode and
act accordingly. “I know how to
work with it,” she says. “I know to
be kind to myself.” •The Power
of Positive
Thinking
ÒIÕm an eternal
optimist,Ó says
Gotch. Her
Òsearch for joyÓ
has yielded
tell-it-like-it-is
necklaces, flower
headbands (on
Taylor Swift,
below) and an
entire line of
self-affirming
products.For two days in 1995, Jen Gotch was con-
vinced her skin was turning green. After
her parents assured her she was mistak-
en, the then 23-year-old locked herself
in her room for a calming manicure,
lit a candle—and accidentally set her
fingernails on fire. She ran out, berated
her mom and dad for not understanding
her and proceeded to smash a wine bot-
tle into her forehead. “After that nervous
breakdown, flame fingers and all, I was
diagnosed with depression,” says Gotch.
“The first diagnosis I was ever given.”
The diagnosis would eventually
prove to be incorrect, but for Gotch,
now 48 and the founder and CEO of the
successful lifestyle company ban.do, it
was a turning point. As she explains in
her new memoir, The Upside of Being
Down, she credits much of her success
to her mental health struggles and the
quest to identify and harness them
that began that day. “Those seemingly
negative experiences gave me a deeper
understanding,” she says. “Not just of
myself but of other people.”
Not that it was an easy road. Gotch
stumbled through a series of jobs
(waitress, food stylist) in her twenties,
tried medications that would work and
then stop working and was told she
had everything from generalized anx-
iety disorder to ADD. Finally, in 2002,
a psychiatrist realized that her mood
swings fit the profile for a form of bipo-
lar disorder. Properly diagnosed and
medicated, she had “the brain space
and the brain function to, like, figure
life out... and find joy,” she says. She was
able to channel her creativity and start
ban.do (a twist on
the French word
bandeau, meaningo days i s c
d her sk
parents he
the th d l
her ro calmi
t a candl d accid
fingern She
her m r n
her a t
tle i
br
d
The firGrowing Up
Anxious
ÒIt was a low-
lying anxiety,Ó
says Gotch (with
her mom, Saerina,
and dad, Jamie,
in 1984). ÒI have
very attentive,
caring parents,
but there was a
lack of awareness
[back then]. We
didnÕt talk about
things the way we
do today.Ó(GOTCH) KERRY CRAWFORD; (FAMILY) COURTESY JEN GOTCH; (SWIFT) KENNETH WILLARDT/AUGUST; (BOOK) PETER ZAMBOUROS 57P13GOT2C.indd 57 FINAL 3/16/20 11:12 PM