Hannah Lucas

Meet Hannah Lucas, a 22 year old mental health advocate coming out of retirement. At the age of 15 years old, Lucas was diagnosed with a chronic illness called POTS, that made her pass out multiple times a day. Due to this she struggled immensely with anxiety, depression, and suicide ideation until she couldn’t handle the pressure anymore and attempted to take her own life. Luckily a family member found her just in time. This experience made her realize she couldn’t go on like that; she needed to find a solution that would empower her to take back her independence. Thus, the notOK app was born in 2018, gaining over 200,000 users globally. The notOK app is a digital panic button that, when pressed, sends an alert to the user’s trusted contacts letting them know they are “notOK” and need help along with the user’s GPS location. Since the launch of the notOK app, Lucas has used her platform to speak out for suicide prevention and mental health awareness. Then in 2020 when Covid shut down the world, the conversation surrounding mental health became more important than ever. With the world thrown into uncertainty, Lucas set out to raise over $50,000 thousand dollars in cash grants for high schoolers.

Lucas has been featured in documentaries including the award-winning PBS Out of the Dark series and MTV’s Each and Every Day. Lucas has worked with the American Association of Suicidology Youth Advisory Board, United Nations YOUNGA Speaker and Delegate, and the Biden-Harris Youth Transition Team. Some of Lucas's achievements include Mental Health America’s mPower Award, Rockin Robin Production’s Thriver of the Year Award 2021, National Alliance on Mental Health Young Leader Award, Teen Vogue’s 2020 21 under 21 list, Beyonce’s This is Black History List, Scholastic’s Top 12 Influential Teens, and T-Mobile Changemaker 2020.