Dior Vargas is a Latina feminist and mental health activist who’s been collecting the photos of people of color who have mental illnesses on her website. As Vargas points out, although we often read about people with depression and other mental illnesses, we rarely see people of color represented—and that alone can only heighten the stigma around mental health. The photos she’s gathered are self-submitted and illustrate a community that is rarely seen or heard from, countering the narrative that mental illness is a white people thing.  

Now, Vargas is raising money to step her project up and work with a professional photographer to capture the images of 50 people of color with mental illnesses:

Vargas is hoping to raise $6,000 on Kickstarter in order to get studio space, pay a photographer, and compensate participants on photos that would be used in print. She’s got 27 days to go in order to make her project a reality.