Richmond B.C. teen mental health advocate says sports and modelling helped her recover

Richmond teen Amaya Cruz, who made headlines for walking in New York Fashion Week in February, is now being honoured as a model both on and off the runway.

On Saturday, 14-year-old Cruz received the City of Richmond's U-ROC Outstanding Youth Award Saturday evening for her advocacy around youth experiencing mental health challenges like she does.

The teen, who started modelling in 2020 after beginning treatment for anxiety and severe clinical depression, is now a peer mentor to other teens facing mental health challenges at nonprofit Touchstone Family Association in Richmond.

"I still have my struggles… it's not going to go away right away," Cruz told CBC News on Sunday, which was National Child and Youth Mental Health Day in Canada. "But I'm doing better than where I was a couple of years ago, and I'm proud of that."

The award recognized 57 Richmond youth who have overcome barriers to their own success and demonstrated exceptional qualities that make Richmond a better place. 

Cruz had her first panic attack when she was eight, after she suffered two concussions from competitive cheerleading which caused her to miss school. At the time, she didn't know what the panic attack was, but the episodes intensified.

"I would get worried, and it would be fine, but then it just kept getting worse and worse," Cruz recalls. 

Children and youth who experience concussions are 40 per cent more likely to develop mental health challenges than those who receive orthopaedic surgeries, a 2022 study from researchers at the Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario in Ottawa found.

When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, Cruz also developed what she and her mental health team now know was severe clinical depression.

"The normal things, I just didn't have