ABOUT

    Gina Cullen is 20 year-old, full-time Psychology BS at Valdosta State University. Gina found her calling to be a Doctor of Psychiatry when undergoing hospitalization from Anorexia Nervosa in Atlanta, GA 2023. Her mission is to spread awareness of mental illnesses, primarily eating disorders, while personally working with others, who have endured or are enduring psychological distress.

    While Gina spent most her life under stage lights, Gina found through her recovery that her involvement in the arts was a seemingly successful strategy to cope with internalized desires for external validation. Within her first week of hospitalization, Gina found herself relieved to have an excuse to not be tap-dancing or feeling the pressure of auditioning. However, she opened up her laptop and started writing in her notes: "I don't like not having any answers" (01/30/2023, 10:41pm.) If she wasn't a performer, what was she?

    In three weeks, Gina was going to find her answer during a Psychology-Ed group within her residential treatment center. A thick packet about the chemical components of a malnourished body's brain appeared in her hands, and she re-read it each day until her discharge. From the anatomy of the brain to the composition of (listed) medications in which the brain responds to, there was nothing that had intrigued her more. Gina was enraged with the false advertisements of health that she had fallen upon in her 19 years of life; So, she fell in love with the idea of working with others who, just like her, have endured mental illness from either/both nature and nurture. She was going to change the world through something she had struggled with all her life: THE BRAIN. Today, she is spending most of her days studying hard, working at her favorite smoothie shop, and quietly producing music.

    Gina understands the common misconceptions surrounding eating disorders and mental health, as she once held the same ideas. I Choose Her is a platform created to overturn these false ideas and share the personal experiences of someone who was directly affected by them. Gina's passions have always surrounded the idea of being heard, but her love for psychology is a passion for making others heard.