Melissa Bernstein, Co-Founder of Connecticut-Based Toy Company, Melissa & Doug, Shares Lifelong Struggle with Mental Illness
From the outside, Melissa Bernstein, co-founder of Melissa & Doug with her husband, looks like the picture of success. She heads a beloved toy company based in Connecticut, has a supportive and loving husband and six children.
At the same time, Bernstein was struggling with her mental health, mostly in secret. In her new memoir, "LifeLines: An Inspirational Journey from Profound Darkness to Radiant Light," she shares her lifelong experiences with “existential depression,” starting therapy and wanting to help others.
“Everybody believed that I had it all in the conventional, societal sense of success and that meant I was perfect. I have spent 50 years trying to live up to that model of perfection and failing,” she told TODAY. “The book was my bid to say this is who I am because I had hidden myself in the shadows for my whole life.”