PropertyOfZack had the honor not to only interview To Write Love On Her Arms, but to also interview the man who founded the organization, Jamie Tworkowski. Jamie and I discussed the value of TWLOHA winning a free, full-page ad in USA Today this summer as well as how the organization got started, and a new live online crisis network that will be launched before the year’s end.

Most recently To Write Love On Her Arms won a contest to win a full-page ad for USA Today, for free. The contest was won by support voting. What does that say about just how deep the support for the organization goes?
Our supporters are incredible. They have everything to do with the surprising doors that continue to open for us.  
 
What good do you think can come from the ad?
We know that a lot of people feel alone in their struggles and their questions. We hope the ad was an encouragement to those people. We hope it sparked conversations and we hope it let people know they’re not alone in whatever they’re going through. And we would certainly love it if it inspired some people to seek professional help, as that’s something we very much believe in and are proud to invest in. 
 
Can you talk at all about TWLOHA’s immense support from the music community? You guys are at every stop of the Warped Tour as well as all of Bamboozle’s festivals.
We believe that music is important, that it has the unique ability to remind us we’re alive, that it’s okay to ask questions. Music has been part of the TWLOHA story since the very beginning and I think that will always be the case. We are beyond grateful for the support of so many bands, as well as the folks who run Warped and Bamboozle - and Soundwave in Australia has become another important one for us. Beyond that, the heart of the matter really, is that music is the vehicle that allows us to bring our message of hope and help to thousands of young people across America and beyond. There’s nothing we love more than the conversations we get to have on the road. 
 
Few other organizations or movements seem to get such attention and support from one specific group of people. Do you think it’s just a natural pairing between the means behind TWLOHA and the music in the scene?
I do think it’s a natural pairing. And I think some of it goes back the fact that music has been part of our story since the very beginning. Literally, the first person to wear a TWLOHA shirt was Jon Foreman (singer) from Switchfoot. So it isn’t forced and I think people see that we don’t just look at music as “marketing” - we think it’s truly something special, something important that shares a lot of common ground with our mission and our message.  
 
The best publicity you guys get is from the 100’s of band members that sport your clothes from venues that hold 200 to 2,000, does it ever surprise you seeing so much support from artists themselves?
Yes. We set out to sell 200 t-shirts to help a friend pay for (drug) treatment in 2006. Here we are almost five years later and so many doors have opened along the way. The support of artists has so much to do with that, especially us having the opportunity to move from helping one person to helping many people.
 
How has the involvement of music affected the organization on a larger scale?
We have a staff of 12 and five full-time interns. Our team has responded to 150,000 messages and emails from people in 100 countries since 2006. We’ve been able to give more than $750,000 to treatment and recovery. The support of artists and the music community has helped make all of those things possible, probably more than we’ll ever know.  
 
What’s the most important thing that music fans that hear about TWLOHA can do for the organization?
The most important thing they can do is learn about problems of pain so that they can learn how to care for people that are hurting. As for helping TWLOHA specifically; they can make a donation, buy a t-shirt, host a benefit show, join our street team or move to Florida to join us as an intern.
 
Can you tell us about how you decided to and then actually founded TWLOHA?
It started as an attempt to help a friend. “To Write Love on Her Arms” was the name of a story that I wrote about a girl that had been denied entry into a drug treatment story. I wrote the story, made a MySpace page and started selling shirts to raise money to help her. Thanks in large part to the support of friends in bands, people beyond our community in Orlando found out about it almost instantly. Messages started pouring in from people asking for help and how to help their friends. The shirts basically took on a life of their own, with orders coming in from all over the world. We were able to move quickly from helping one person and telling one story to doing our best to encourage a lot of people and also to invest in treatment on a bigger scale. For the first year, we existed under the umbrella of another non-profit and then we’ve been on our own for the last three years. 
 
Other hotlines and similar organizations exist, but TWLOHA has an unusual cultural following. How did the original concept of TWLOHA grow to what it is now?
We started by running in a few different circles at once - everything from the internet to music to churches, festivals and schools. We just did our best to do things in a way that was creative, brave, honest and hopeful. I didn’t grow up wanting to run a non-profit so there’s been a lot of freedom in terms of how we look and how we communicate. We value design, we value language, and we value music and creativity. More than anything, we want people to know they’re not alone, that we believe their life is worth fighting for.
 
When TWLOHA was started did you ever have intentions of it becoming such a monumental cause to so many people?
Yes and no. I was working for Hurley as their Florida sales rep when this started in 2006 and that was a job I thought I would do for a long time. In the beginning, it was simply as an attempt to help one person, to tell one story. I wasn’t thinking about starting a non-profit or a “global movement.” That said, things took off very quickly and, seeing how people were responding, it was easy to imagine that if and as more people found out about TWLOHA, it could become a bigger thing. The issues that we talk about are human issues. Depression, addiction, self-injury and suicide - the problems of pain - these things affect people of all ages all over the world.
 
Should we be on the lookout for any new announcements or events from TWLOHA in the near or distant future?
We have been dreaming about launching a live online crisis network for some time now. That will happen this year with the launch of IMAlive. So yes, stay tuned. 
 
Thanks so much for your time, is there anything else you’d like to add?
We just want people to know that they’re not alone. Every person everywhere has a story and every one of those stories is significant. We all deserve other people who know us and love us and walk through life with us. And we deserve help when we’re walking through difficult seasons.