Monica is an award-winning journalist, blogger and mental health advocate. She is the founder of the blog Meant to Live, where she works to raise awareness about suicide and help erase the stigma associated with mental illness. Her writing is also featured on Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan’s A Healthier Michigan.
She currently serves as a communications specialist for Blue Cross and previously worked in communications for the State of Michigan and editor/reporter for the newspaper The Oakland Press.
Some of Monica’s accomplishments in her career include breaking the viral story “13 Reasons Why Not,” winning first place in News Enterprise Reporting by the Michigan Press Association, being named “Digital Innovator of the Year” by the Local Media Association, and receiving the Ambassador Award from the suicide prevention nonprofit Six Feet Over. She lives in metro Detroit with her husband and two cats, Katniss and Finnick.
Monica is also an aspiring novelist, currently querying her first novel, “More Than a Body.” The story follows the characters Michelle and Zachary. Michelle is escaping an abusive home — traveling on a bus from Boston to Detroit. Zach is struggling with gender identity while living in a conservative home in the suburbs of southeast Michigan. They don’t realize, before they were born, they were meant to be sisters, but were born into the wrong bodies. This story is about their journeys to find one another and being more than just the body you’re born into.
Monica’s goal is to use her writing to show others that they’re not alone.
“I’ve never read any story that moved me so deeply. Monica portrays such complex and complete human beings in a way that is just breathtaking. I felt so much love and hope and empathy and pain and, god, just ‘This is real. This is how it is.’ This book is one I would take to a desert island. There’s magic here that I just can’t explain.”
— Matthew Orlando, Licensed Professional Counselor, MA, LPC, NCC
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