Amanda Lipp

In a world where shame and stigma around mental health can secretly suffocate success and happiness – changing the narrative is key. When vulnerability and adversity is seen as an opportunity to expand, rather than a weakness to overcome, it can create a ripple effect in organizations that is rooted in trust and authenticity. When we feel safe and seen – we unlock community, confidence, and innovation.

In this story-driven and creative presentation, Amanda Lipp takes your audience through a series of powerful lessons that inspire us to think differently about mental health – for ourselves and in the workplace. Using my ‘crayon box method’, we uncover the layers that are holding you back so you can thrive and then pay-it-forward. As a filmmaker, she weaves in stories of people’s journeys to illustrate the diversity of resilience – that everyone’s path looks differently. Amanda uses crayons as a creative and fun metaphor to dig deep and think “outside the box” of mental health.

Learning Objectives:

• Discover how to translate shame and stigma – invisible ‘superpowers’ that can serve as a guide to personal empowerment, and a wellness-focused culture.
• Learn how to think like a filmmaker to build connection and trust. Discover the three ingredients to thinking like a filmmaker.
• Learn the concept "Think Big, Act Small" – a powerful combination of empathy and little actions that can make all the difference for ourselves and paying-it-forward.

Sometimes our “life plans” don’t go exactly how we planned. But your voice and every step is significant. There is a superpower underneath your unique story and identity. Amanda Lipp shares her full circle journey from being a patient at a psychiatric hospital and dropping out of college, to becoming an young leader and documentary filmmaker in mental health care.

Pulling up a seat at the table can be feel vulnerable and scary. At the age of 19, Amanda was appointed to the largest grassroots mental health nonprofit in the U.S., the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI), making her the first and youngest board member in the organization’s history. This led to serving on Google’s Mental Health Advisory Panel. These roles catapulted her into learning “on the job” the politics and responsibility of leadership – while also balancing her own personal identity, hobbies, and dreams. Amanda challenges youth to lean into their passion, get uncomfortable, and speak up. A feeling of Failure really stands for a First Attempt In Learning. And to not forget to have fun and invest in yourself in the process.

Learning Objectives:

• Discover “your superpower” behind your unique identity and mental health challenges.
• Learn Amanda's Top 3 Tips for leaning into youth leadership and career opportunities.
• Learn strategies for investing in your hobbies to support your mental health.

Being bold doesn’t always look loud. Sometimes it looks like making a quiet, unconventional choice – and standing by it.

For Amanda Lipp, that choice was vanlife. During the pandemic, she built a van and radically simplified her life. What started as a practical decision became a powerful metaphor for how Amanda leads, creates, and protects her mental health. As an introvert who does very extroverted work, the van forced her to ask better questions: What does she actually need? What’s just noise? And what happens when she designs her life on purpose instead of by default?

This keynote invites audiences to reflect on the places where they’ve been playing it safe – personally or professionally – and what it might look like to live and work more authentically. Using vanlife as a metaphor, Amands explores how daring to be different creates space for clarity, creativity, and more human-centered leadership. Because innovation doesn’t come from copying what’s expected – it comes from trusting who you are.

Learning Objectives:

• Participants will identify one way they can lean more fully into their authentic selves—challenging default norms, embracing difference, and making bold, values-aligned choices that support both wellbeing and meaningful impact.

Amanda spent three months in a psychiatric hospital during college, hearing patients’ stories of struggle and triumph - including her own. She learned from the inside-out how the system works, and the role of empathy and peers in healing. She shares how hitting rock bottom showed her a way out, and motivated her to finally face her issues. While in the hospital, a thoughtful nurse handed Amanda a box of crayons. This simple gesture became a pivotal moment in Amanda’s healing and identity, and was ultimately the first step in her becoming a young leader and filmmaker in mental health care. Amanda shares how 'the little things' can make all the difference, and the power of storytelling in self-empowerment and systems-change. In this presentation, Amanda weaves in her own personal story, creative exercises using crayons, wellness tips, and short films she's produced featuring people's mental health stories.

"I believe we're always healing from something, and fostering our wellness is a constant practice" - AL

Learning points:

• Crafting our mental health narratives
• Translating shame and self-stigma into growth and opportunity
• Challenging traditional systems of care
• Paying-it-forward

Amanda’s journey to becoming a filmmaker began with storyboarding patient’s stories in the psychiatric hospital. Upon discharge, Amanda began producing short films about mental health with clients around the U.S. Having now interviewed over 300 people across 80 short films, Amanda has witnessed a range of powerfully vulnerable and diverse stories. In this presentation, Amanda shares short films and behind-the-scenes of her filmmaking practices. Plus, the bigger picture of how films can be applied to digital advertising, research studies, and treatment programs. And perhaps, most importantly, how filmmaking practice can translate to everyday values in life: people want to be heard, seen, and represented.

Learning points:

• Describe the power of narrative filmmaking in personal empowerment and systems-change
• Identify how films can be used in research studies to evaluate stigma
• Describe how short documentary films can be applied in digital campaigns to reach people seeking help.
• Describe film production practices that are recovery-oriented, trauma-informed, and person-centered.