To celebrate International Women's Day, GuelphToday is featuring the six honourees for this year's Guelph Y Women of Distinction.
Young moms doesn't mean bad moms, says Victoria Harris, one of the this year's Women of Distinction.
“Young moms doesn’t mean incapable. Young moms, they can be smart, they can be recognized as Women of Distinction...it’s possible, just like everything,” says Harris, who this year's award helps to change the negative perception of young mothers.
It was helping others with postpartum depression has led a young mother of two to be named as one of the Guelph Y's Women of Distinction.
“I’ve been in the running for the last three years before this,” says Harris, a member of the Teenage Parents Program (TAPPs) at the YMCA, “It does feel good after all this time, like ‘Wow, look at you!’”
For Women of Distinction 2021, Harris will be receiving the Turning Point Award, which acknowledges the efforts of a TAPPs program individual who has persevered through challenges to make better choices for themselves and their family.
Harris says for the past three years she struggled with postpartum depression after giving birth to her daughter and son. Not realizing it was postpartum depression, Harris says TAPPs helped her recognize and take care of her mental health.
“I was a young mom and I didn’t know anyone, like I didn't know any other moms or anyone who experienced that,” she says, “I thought that what I was going through and what I was feeling was normal, until I started coming to TAPPs.”
After going through that experience, Harris reaches out to other young mothers to spread awareness of postpartum depression. She also provides insight into resources available for young mothers within the community.
“I took initiative to recognize some of the signs and feeling I felt after I had my kids, and try to help my other friends not feel like that,” she explains about why she does it, “Because I know how it feels and I know how hard it is to live with that.”
“I want to be that person that people can come to and people have comfort in my presence.”
With the pandemic pausing in-person events, Harris says she and the other mothers in TAPPs have been keeping in touch throughout the pandemic to maintain emotional and mental support.
“I think we all took turns on who needed the most support,” Harris explains, “And we all kind of banded together to boost the person who was really in need, up, with the expectation and knowledge that they would do the same thing for us, which everybody did.”
On top of being a parent and active member of TAPPs, Harris is also working towards a bachelor of applied health information science degree.
