Diana Chao

Diana Chao is executive director of Letters to Strangers, which she founded as a sophomore in high school after bipolar disorder nearly ended her life. Today, L2S is the largest global youth-for-youth mental health nonprofit, impacting over 35,000 people annually on six continents and publishing the world’s first youth-for-youth mental health guidebook. Chao, who teaches and speaks on youth mental health, is a 2021 Princess Diana Legacy Award winner, 2020 L’Oréal Paris Woman of Worth, and O, The Oprah Magazine’s 2019 Health Hero. As part of Adobe’s inaugural class of global Top Talents, her photographic self-portrait series went viral with more than two million views. A 2021 Princeton University graduate with a degree in geological and earth sciences, she is also a writer and works as a natural hazards analyst for Kinetic Analysis Corporation.