User:Ella Doyle/sandbox

Mariangela Abeo (born December 23rd, 1975) is a Seattle based italian american Mental Health Advocate, Producer, Photographer, Speaker and Founder of the Faces of Fortitude Movement.

Early Life and Work
Abeo was born and raised in the Seattle area.

In the aftermath of experiencing sexual assault, Abeo survived a serious attempt on their own life at the age of seventeen. In 2007 their brother Jimmy, who was seven years younger than Abeo, took his life. This trauma led to founding the Faces of Fortitude Project about eleven years later.

Before changing careers, she produced the music videos and managed the musical career of her rapper husband Ryan Abeo, better known as RA Scion.

Birth of the Movement
After the loss of her brother, Abeo took on working in the creative field. It was while working in Audience Coordination and as a producer for CreativeLive, when she attended a presentation of photographer Stacy Pearsall, who talked about founding the Veterans Portrait Project. Inspired by her work and searching for a creative project to help heal from their own trauma, Abeo decided to start their own project, "Faces of Fortitude", by taking their own picture first and publishing it on Instagram on October 29th, 2017.

To this day, Abeo has taken pictures of more than 100 people touched by suicide — be it as a survivor, through losing a loved one or as a first responder.

In 2018 Abeo was awarded "Mental Health Hero" by The Mighty, a digital health community.

The Movement gained popularity when in May 2019 Zachary Williams, son of actor Robin Williams, had his picture taken and published by Abeo. It was one of the first times Williams opened up about the death of his father five years prior.

Exhibits and Public Speaking
Since 2018 Abeo hosted and visited various gallery shows with pictures of the Faces of Fortitude Movement, like the "ArtHeart Presents: Beautifully Broken Exhibit" in July 2019.

TEDx Talk and conferences
On September 7, 2019, Abeo talked about creating a safe space around suicide at her first TEDx talk in Youngstown, Ohio. Though Abeo spoke in public before, this event got them on the market of public speaking.

Various speeches at conferences, such as the Momentum Conference in March 2019, and the American Association of Suicidology Annual Conference in April 2020 followed.

Another TEDx talk in Dartmouth, Massachusetts is postponed to 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Face to Faces Podcast
In the past Abeo was a guest to various Podcasts, speaking about the project, mental health, vulnerability and society.

Since the COVID-19 pandemic made photoshoots imposible in early 2020, Abeo turned to this medium on their own, creating "Face to Faces" — a podcast by Abeo featuring interviews with activists, politicians, survivors, therapists, mental health advocates, artists, healers, authors, small business owners, non profit organizations and community leaders.

Personal Life
Abeo is married to alternative hip hop artist Ryan Abeo, together they are living in Seattle, Washington, USA. They have one daughter, Madison Rayn Abeo, who is a professional Ballerina at the Pacific Northwest Ballet. Together the family has travelled the world and lived on three different continents.