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Winnipeg clothing line tips hat to those struggling with mental illness

A teenager wanting to help eliminate the stigma of mental illness has teamed up with a group of young entrepreneurs to launch a clothing line to promote mental health awareness.

"We want to make noise," said 22-year-old New Royalty manager Pierry Delcy.

He and his three friends started the business in February and launched their first line Monday. The brand embraces positive messages about mental health, he said.

"They're all about confidence, being able to take care of yourself," said Loizza Aquino, another one of the brains behind the clothing line, which consists of hats and shirts with a golden crown insignia.

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"If I wear something that symbolizes mental health and being able to love yourself, it spreads a conversation. So, 'Oh what's that hat for?' It's about loving yourself, it's about mental health awareness," she said.

Spreading positive messages about mental health is something Aquino says is important to her, because she has a personal connection to the topic. Aquino's friend killed himself a couple years ago when she was 15. The Grade 11 student at Vincent Massey Collegiate says that death had a huge impact on the school, her friends and the boy's family.

Aquino created a group called POM 204 to challenge the stigma of mental illness in the fall, and has held two events called "Youth Against Mental Illness Stigma" since then. The events brought students, teachers, politicians and speakers together to tell personal stories and discuss mental illness.

"Mental health awareness has been so important to me and to collaborate with them [New Royalty], to say, 'Let's create more awareness, more conversation'; it's a perfect way to do it," she said, adding that a portion of sales from the clothing line will go toward more mental health awareness events.

"We want people to stand proud and say, 'It's OK to love yourself and love your imperfections.' And all of those things are really important in life, especially in a generation like this where teenagers are all so self-conscious and self-aware and have low self-esteem."

Delcy says the clothing is about promoting confidence.

"When people wear it, they're aware of that type of state of mind, and we believe that we can help others be their own sources of confidence," he said. "You're able to reach that state by yourself. You're able to gain that confidence. We just believe that it's possible."

He said that while no one at the group has a mental illness, they've all been impacted by the mental health struggles of friends and family.

"It's a matter of being able to not directly relate with those diagnoses but to make them aware that we understand that those are difficulties that you are dealing with," he said.

Aquino added that she understands talking about mental health issues can be uncomfortable and scary, but she believes people wearing New Royalty threads are in effect subtly promoting the conversation.

"Being able to see that there's other people wearing these clothes that support the same cause as you do, it's really important to see that you're not alone and you stand together as a whole," she said.