Maddie Didn’t Need More Advice. She Needed Someone.

I didn’t set out to build a mentorship platform.
I set out to survive the thing I thought would break me.

When we lost Maddie, I couldn’t stop replaying all the moments where maybe, just maybe, things could’ve gone differently. Not just in those final months, but years earlier, when the signs were quieter. When the ache was there, but unnamed.

She was eleven when the ground beneath her started shifting.
Divorce. A move. Another move. Financial stress. New friends. New schools.
And a daughter trying to carry all of it, quietly, because she didn’t want to add to the weight.

There were moments I’ll never stop thinking about.
A swimming pool she started dreading.
A choice between two parents she never should’ve had to make.
Friends she couldn’t tell how much she was hurting.
And me, doing my best but missing things I now see so clearly.

What she needed wasn’t more advice.
She needed a someone.
Not a parent, not a therapist.
But a trusted adult who wasn’t caught in the chaos.
Someone who could’ve just sat with her.
Listened.
Said, “Yeah, that’s a lot, and you’re not crazy for feeling it.”
Someone who knew how to speak the language of 13-year-old pain without trying to fix it.

That’s what I didn’t know I needed back then.
And it’s why The MentorWell exists now.

Therapists do great work. But many tell me they’re flooded with teens. Then admit many of them don’t need therapy.

So do we just wait until they hit crisis-mode?

Teens need a safe space to talk. Without advice. Without trying to fix. Sorry parents, but you’re not quite cutting it in this department. If you think your kid is telling you everything, you’re naive. Don’t worry, I’m guilty of it too!

What One Adult Outside the Home Can Mean to a Teen

There’s research, sure. Statistics that show how one caring adult outside the home, just one, can dramatically lower a teen’s risk of mental health struggles or suicide.

But for me, it’s not a statistic. It’s a scar.
It’s a memory of a girl I loved more than anything, and the haunting feeling that one more voice in her life might’ve made all the difference.

Mentors aren’t saviours.
But they’re a bridge, between what teens feel and what adults often miss.
Between what we say as parents, and what actually lands.

Sometimes a mentor’s impact isn’t even in what they do.
It’s in the space they hold. The questions they ask. The permission they give a teen to be a little messy, a little unsure, and still fully worthy of love.

The Gap I Couldn’t Fill Alone (And Neither Can Most Parents)

I used to think if I just parented differently, I could close the gap.
That more rules, more check-ins, more “we’re getting help” would somehow reach her.
But what I didn’t realize is that teens often won’t open up to the people they feel responsible for.
Especially when they sense we’re hurting too.

What The MentorWell builds is that in-between space.
A place where a teen can show up exactly as they are.
No pressure to perform. No need to protect anyone else's feelings.
Just room to breathe and be heard.

My Hope for Other Families

This isn’t just Maddie’s legacy. It’s my promise.
That no family should feel like they have to face this alone.
That no teen should carry the invisible weight of growing up without someone in their corner.
That we, as a community, can step in, not to fix, but to be with.

The MentorWell isn’t therapy.
It’s not a replacement for parenting.
It’s the bridge I wish we’d had.

And maybe, just maybe, it’s the bridge that saves someone else’s child.