Sharing her personal journey and struggle with depression in presentations around the country has brought forth responses as personal as her message. After facilitating a meeting of the African American Heritage Society at Imani Baptist Church in East Orange, they reported an unprecedented outpouring of written and verbal gratitude. “No one left that evening’s event untouched. We were all positively changed in some way.”

“Your courage to share real parts of yourself was compelling and brought the group closer than expected,” wrote another participant from a Young Woman’s Professional Group meeting in New York City. “I was fighting back the tears because it felt unreal to connect with so many women at one sitting; no BS, no inauthentic speeches.” Going public with her story is a courageous move because it’s a difficult thing to share. But empowering others to open up without shame is her goal. “The whole area of mental health is an area Black people really need to spend time and focus on,” she said. “There are many of us walking around clearly depressed and suffering from other mental illnesses, but we don’t talk about it. It’s considered taboo.”

“I am just like a woman on fire these days getting this message out because our community is dying,” she continued. “When we walk around with a game face on and we’re challenged, and when you don’t deal with the problems and challenges in your life, they manifest themselves in ways so that we overeat, we drink, we take drugs, we have promiscuous sex and we hurt and kill each other. These are indicators that depression is at the root cause of what is wrong with our community.”

These days, along with the professional assistance and medication she takes, when the blues comes creeping around her door, she says she first and foremost asks God to continue to give her strength, hold her and keep her strong. “Helping when you’re hurting is another important thing to do,” she said, “to step outside yourself. The first thing is to just call on God— it was God who directed me to share this story in the first place.”

WORKING TO MAKE A CHANGE

In 2001, Terrie started to refocus. She penned a version of The Personal Touch” for young people that comedian Chris Rock described as “almost as good as the Bible.” “Stay Strong: Simple Life Lesson for Teens” is an advice book that explains to its readers how to get through those difficult years while keeping true to oneself and being a person who is unique and positive. While “Stay Strong” has examples from role models like basketballer Shaquille O’Neal, singer Janet Jackson and Microsoft’s Bill Gates, it is also filled with the real stories of young people who faced and came out on top of the challenges in their lives. Slammin’ Truths—covering subjects like name-calling, apologizing, practicing common sense and living with yourself—are witty raps that come to the heart of the matter.

Two years ago, Terrie Williams sold the agency that bears her name. Now partnering with a lifestyle/marketing and advertising agency called Players Govern Players (PGP) headed by dedicated youth advocate Xavier Artis, she remains president of her company, but her attention is even more focused on what she feels is her real purpose in life— inspiring and supporting America’s youth. “Most people know Terrie as the PR guru,” said Artis, “and weren’t aware that her true passion was serving young people.”

“I think that a lot of times adults don’t give young people the respect they deserve,” Terrie said. “ When we share our challenges with them, it makes us more real to them.”

“Young people have always been a part of my life for as long as I can remember,” she continued speaking on her commitment to youth. “It’s just the catering thing in me— wanting to help people.” Together, Terrie and Artis created the Stay Strong Foundation, developing a series of programs and events designed to raise awareness of teen issues, promote the personal well-being of young people and enhance their educational and professional development “If we don’t give our kids time,” Artis said, “the system will.”

“She’s doing something she really loves,” Jamie Hector said, “affecting the lives of people and children. Everyone would benefit and does benefit from her work in the Stay Strong Foundation.”

“I will be a clinical social worker until the day that I die,” she said of what she considers her true calling. “It’s just what I was called to do. But, through representing some of the biggest names in the business, I realized that I was able to use their wealth, their voice and their clout to make a difference in the lives of people who are not as fortunate.”

Following “Stay Strong”, Terrie wrote “A Plentiful Harvest: Creating Balance and Harmony Through the Seven Living Virtues,” which teaches, step by step, how to rediscover harmony, joy and meaning through the principles of Kwanzaa. It’s a profile for balanced and successful living. She was inspired to work on this book after a sleepless night she spent studying a Kwanzaa card sent to her some months before. “The living virtues are the cornerstones of right living, no matter your cultural heritage,” she wrote in the book’s introduction.“They are among the good and true things that don’t get upgraded every year because they are already perfect. For me, they’re the anchors that keep me grounded.”

Dr. Obery Hendricks believes that Terrie is a success because she is genuinely caring and giving. “The most striking thing about Terrie is her sense of generosity,” said the Professor of Biblical Interpretation at New York Theological Seminary. Putting the finishing touches on his second book, The Politics of Jesus, due out in May, he explained that he fell in love with A Plentiful Harvest and she with his first book, Living Water, which fleshes out the biblical story of the woman at the well. “She said she thought that Living Water would be helpful for women so she started pushing the book and invited me to things. Basically she extended her services without asking anything in return, just because it was a good thing to do.”

Among the harvest of honors Terrie has reaped is the National Book Club Conference giving an award in her name. The Terrie Williams Inspiration Award has been presented to authors whose works and deeds uplift, inspire and serve as an example of doing the right thing.

It’s 8 o’clock on a Wednesday evening and Terrie Williams is still hard at work in her office with no thought of slowing down; dotting is, crossing t’s and making things better in her corner of the world. “There are people on this planet that are unproductive, irrelevant and just take up oxygen,” she says with a laugh. “Then the preacher has to make up stuff about them when they cross over. I want to live my life in a way that the preacher doesn’t have to do that. I just want it to be said that I did the best with what I had to serve humanity.”