About Us

About HappyMess

This brand wasn't built in a boardroom. It was built in the mess.

Who We Are

HappyMess is a mental health brand for all of it — the highs, the lows, the chaos, the breakthroughs and everything in between. We're not here to tell you to smile through it. We're here to sit in the mess with you and remind you that you're not alone.

Whether you're in the darkest part of your journey or finally starting to see the light — there's a place for you here.

The Story Behind HappyMess

My name is Jake. I have bipolar 2 disorder.

For most of my life I didn't know that. I just knew something was wrong. I was angry all the time — a rage that felt uncontrollable and bigger than me. I was creative and driven and could work 18 hours straight building something from nothing. I was also spending hundreds of dollars a week numbing the pain, gambling away money I didn't have and slowly destroying the relationships that mattered most to me.

I built a glass engraving business that was doing real revenue. I had features in magazines. I worked with major brands. And I was quietly falling apart the entire time.

Then my wife Katie got cancer. I was alone with my thoughts, my habits and a brain I didn't understand until I hit rock bottom.

I finally asked for help.

Partial hospitalization. Real medication. Real therapy. DBSA. NAMI. For the first time in my life someone explained what was actually happening in my brain. Bipolar 2. Not a bad personality. Not a character flaw. A condition with a name and a treatment and a community of people who understood.

That was three years ago. Katie beat cancer. I got stable. I got sober. I started rebuilding — intentionally this time, with my brain instead of against it.

HappyMess is what I built from all of it.

What We Stand For

We don't do toxic positivity here. We don't pretend it's easy. We don't tell you to think positive and push through.

We sit in the mess with you. We share real stories. We provide real resources. We build real community. And we remind you every single day that no matter where you are in your journey — you are not alone in this.

Life is hard. But it gets better.

— Jake, Founder of HappyMess 🌊🖤