Bad Hair Day on Planet Earth is not another memoir. It is just another story.
The mission of the BHD Project is to breakdown stigmas surrounding mental illness and create a culture of understanding and acceptance through sharing Barbara’s intensely personal struggle of crisis and recovery.
Bad Hair Day on Planet Earth — a book that provides a raw, unadulterated view into mental illness and the messy journey through recovery — is the first step in fulfilling that mission. Over a 10-year period, the BHD team transcribed Barbara’s journals and audio-recordings and curated them with a trove of found objects (date books, photographs, recordings, artwork, letters, and interviews) into a multidimensional book.
It’s a story told in real time with minimal reliance on memory or the wisdom of the present; a story meant to engage and, in the deepest sense, help others.
The Story
Mental illness is everywhere around us: depression, addiction, eating disorders, and personality disorders. They all show up here, too. First hand, completely raw. Bad Hair Day on Planet Earth is a story about the possibility of healing. It is at once both relatable and remarkable. Mundane and extraordinary. Deeply depressing and ultimately full of hope. Find out more.
The Team
Every person has a story to tell. The BHD Project worked for over a decade to collect, compile, transcribe, design, and layout thousands of pages of source material into a story. Our goal is to tell this story the best way we can. Because we know, for certain, that it needs to be told. Meet the all-woman team who made it happen.
The Objects
During her several-decade struggle with mental illness, addiction, trauma, and grief, Barbara unknowingly built a collection of artifacts chronicling her illness and the messy, nonlinear journey through recovery. These found objects include date books, photographs, recordings, artwork, letters, and interviews. See a sampling.
We are grateful to everyone who made our launch event possible!
