Our Founder Mandi Lynn
Mandi is a peace activist who focuses on self-compassion and internal non-violence as the starting point for community peace.
She has built the programming that she needed as a kid struggling with family and cultural trauma. She is a holistic nurse, somatic trauma therapist, and youth worker. She is also a master photographer, award-winning community arts practitioner, and film director. She combines all of these skills to co-design and facilitate trauma-informed creative programs for youth around New Zealand.
The Board
Faithe Hanrahan
Faithe went through our training to become a school facilitator of Click Happy and was so taken with the program that she has grown it at her school in Opotiki Primary. She has been our Kaumatua for several years and a champion of all that we do.
Penny Aspin
Penny is a professional photographer and human rights activist. She has supported the trust since its inception.
Craig Thompson
Business Analyst who has lived since he was 17 with a physical disability. Craig brings the business smarts to the board as well as his lived experience of disability advocacy.
Stella Mackey
She was the first person to put her hand up to become a Lucious Order of Golden Shield Maidens. A champion of girl power, human rights, and general awesomeness.
Our Amazing Volunteers
We have an editorial team of 6 and over 40 young content creators volunteering their time and passion to produce Create Happy Magazine and soon to be Podcast.
Our graduates of Click Happy have gone on to do some incredibly impressive things and won awards normally that are reserved for adults who have mastered their field. Luckily they know their roots and love to come back and share what they know with rising young photographers.
We have professional writers, journalists, and photographers dedicating their time and energy to helping us produce content for the Compassionate Journalism programs. We are very blessed to have them be part of our Volunteer team.
Our founder is a judge at the National Photography Awards and is blessed to have a deep group of dear friends who are some of New Zealand's premier photographers who have come and donated their time to help support the youth.
Finding Venus Crew
Event Crews
The events are run by a gorgeous collection of volunteers that come together to hold space for the participants and do the grunt work of getting everything set up and broken down. Each event pulls together the following supportive volunteers and support workers.
- Regional Ambassador
- Set up and break down crew
- Healthy crew chef (to keep us fed, watered, and energized during the long days)
- Filming crew
- Photography crew
- Yoga teacher
- Dance teacher
- Health At Every size Nutritionist
- 3 Artists to support the art station
The Luscious Order of Golden Shieldmaidens
These are the women of extreme courage and cheek who have gotten their kits off (the top) and have allowed themselves to be covered in golden clay. They have done this to help create an art exhibition that showcases the reality of the female form as a counterpoint to the 400-600 photoshopped images that our daughters see each day.
Each time we put on one of the Gen Mojo Forums some women stay later and continue on this journey. They write three words that have troubled them about their bodies on to their bodies feel them deeply and then choose to wipe them away. They then choose 3 new words and those get painted on them with a golden glittery body paint. They wear these under their clothes for a day owning the new words and then the evening of the last day of the event they move to the final stage and cover themselves in golden clay and become part of the Luscious Order of Golden Shield Maidens. They are photographed and become part of the travelling Every Body is a Treasure Exhibition.
Women from the following NZ regions have participated so far Wellington, Upper Hutt, Kapiti, Wairarapa, Rangitikei, Waipa, South and North Taranaki and as far afield as San Francisco when we presented the project at the Be Body Positive Leadership forum.