I’m Angela Inez, creator writer and producer of The “I Am…” Project. I grew up in southern Missouri and, at 17, with my grandparents’ permission, joined the United States Air Force. I was stationed in California and then spent five years in Spain, Italy and Turkey and finally landed in Washington, DC. I currently live in Maryland, where I call home. Like many artists, writing has always been an outlet for me to express how I see the world as well as my personal experiences. The podcasts were born out of discovering that my mother had a mental illness, and I didn’t recognize it. Mental illness affects us directly and indirectly and it has many faces. We must try to understand it so we can name it – recognize it.