Bloom

Grace Shao, Shailee Sankhala, Yinzhi Pan, Raksha Rajeshmohan, Cecilia Mou, Rachel Shim, Megan Sha, Anne Wu, and May Essman

11th Grade

Portola High School

Using a garden as a metaphor, we worked with May Essman, who struggles with depression and decided to tell this real life story as a way to express her emotions and journey. We chose two locations to successfully portray the true meaning of the film – one is a hill that was burnt in a recent forest fire and one is Sherman Library and Gardens, which has the beautiful greenery we used to describe the healing process. By exploring this story, we realized how important it is that the stigma around mental health is addressed in society and that more people are aware of the importance of mental health.