Why Cat Miller Built ThisWayUp After Witnessing the Hidden Mental Health Crisis Affecting 60% of Teen Girls
Cat Miller used to dissect complex financial reports with precision, crafting investment pitches that could move millions. Then her pregnancy hit, followed by an undiagnosed chronic condition, and suddenly, she did not know herself. The longtime Chicago resident and Harvard MBA, who once commanded boardrooms full of life and adventure, found herself exhausted going through the motions of caring for her new baby while experiencing her cognitive abilities diminishing.
Two years later, when doctors finally diagnosed her celiac disease, she thought salvation would arrive with a gluten-free diet. However, the fog persisted, and Miller faced a brutal truth: she was experiencing depression while everyone around her assumed she was living the dream.
Her mental health crisis, and her daughter’s subsequent own struggle with anxiety opened her eyes to a bigger problem hiding in plain sight.
Nearly 60% of U.S. teen girls reported persistent sadness or hopelessness in 2021, yet only 1.7% of philanthropic funding goes toward mental health. The math doesn’t add up, and Miller decided to do something about it and to create the kind of support she once needed.
Building ThisWayUp in a Down Market
Miller’s response to her healing journey is the initiative she launched called ThisWayUp. Launched publicly last July 2025, it begins with a powerful call to action: watch. share. speak. ThisWayUp bridges the mental health gap for women and girls through community building, evidence-based resources, and the kind of destigmatization that actually works.
A frank and empowering digital platform, ThisWayUp supports the emotional well-being of women and teens, with free resources grounded in science, elevated by storytelling, and guided by expert insight.
Miller’s approach is grounded in personal experience rather than market opportunity, focused on systemic change rather than quick fixes. The initiative includes community advisory councils composed of teens and women, alongside mental health research experts and clinical psychologists, who provide guidance grounded in science and lived experience.
This model ensures that the people most affected by these issues have actual input rather than just serving as inspirational case studies. Guided by these experts, the team establishes credibility backed by science and best practices.
ThisWayUp focuses on reducing stigma through open dialogue and sharing trusted information. It explores the connection between mental health and physiology, develops classroom resources for educators, and creates healing-centered community spaces.
Miller stresses that ThisWayUp isn’t trying to reinvent therapy or compete with traditional mental health services. Instead, it’s filling the gaps that existing systems miss—the connection between physical health and mental wellness, the need for community support during life transitions, and the reality that 56.1% of adolescents with major depression receive no mental health treatment at all.
From Wall Street to Well-being advocate
Behind the success of ThisWayUp was Miller’s journey of choice, transformation, and acceptance. It wasn’t a smooth one. The transformation from investment banker to mental health advocate wasn’t exactly a joyful moment for Miller. She spent years blaming herself for her daughter’s anxiety, convinced that her own depression during those crucial early years had somehow broken her child.
“I was not the mother, wife, friend, or human I wanted to be for a long time. I was so angry. And gutted to admit that yes, I was depressed, finally,” she admits.
However, the light at the end of the tunnel came when Miller watched her daughter’s immediate improvement through medication. “Wait! If meds can help my daughter, I should explore that!” she shares. It was a moment of clarity after long years of confusion and suffering.
Through a combination of medication, exercise, gut health improvements, and outdoor time, Miller clawed her way back to what she describes as joy. But her story isn’t just another wellness transformation tale. The current numbers tell a bigger picture. The rate of lifetime depression among women has increased by over 40% in the last decade, yet periods like postpartum and perimenopause remain under-addressed in mainstream mental health care.
Miller recognized something that the mental health industrial complex often misses: life transitions, particularly for women navigating hormonal changes, create perfect storms for depression and anxiety.
A New Era of Mental Health for Women
The mental health crisis among women and girls isn’t just a numbers game. It reflects broader societal failures to support half the population through predictable life challenges. Postpartum depression affects up to 20% of new mothers, yet many women still suffer in silence. Perimenopause, which can trigger depression and anxiety, remains so poorly understood that many women don’t even realize their symptoms are connected to hormonal changes.
The launch of ThisWayUp comes at a moment when mental health awareness has never been higher, but actual access to care remains frustratingly limited. Miller is passionate about empowering others by providing information on the connection between physical health, lifestyle choices, and mental well-being. As she overcame her challenges, she also wants to share her story in hopes that it can help women and girls reduce the severity of their mental health issues.
Miller is betting that community-based approaches, combined with education and destigmatization, can fill some of the gaps that traditional mental health services miss. She recognizes that mental health isn’t just about individual resilience. It’s about creating systems that support people through predictable challenges.
If there’s anything Miller, as a mother and investment banker, has learned from her journey through the darkness, it is that nobody should have to find their way out alone. With the right combination of medical intervention, lifestyle changes, and community support, she believes well-being can improve.
Miller mentions, “Welcome to ThisWayUp, where the culture of healing is possible, support is accessible, and well-being is a shared priority.”
This article is for informational purposes only and does not substitute for professional medical advice. If you are seeking medical advice, diagnosis or treatment, please consult a medical professional or healthcare provider.
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