TOP 100 MAGAZINE

Jason Reid
CEO and Founder: Tell My Story

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A Father’s Loss That Became a National Mission

 

In 2018, Jason Reid’s life changed in a moment that no parent imagines. While he and his wife were away, their phones vibrated with the same message from their 14-year-old son, Ryan: “I love you. Goodbye.” By the time they reached him, it was too late. In Ryan’s drawer, Jason found two notes. One listed his usernames and passwords. The other held a request that would become his life’s purpose: “Tell my story.”

 

Jason, a successful entrepreneur who had spent three decades building a nationwide construction company, walked out of the hospital after removing Ryan from life support and went home to start a foundation. His mission was, and remains, unforgivingly clear: eradicate teen suicide by 2030. Ryan’s final words became not only a promise, but a legacy. “I couldn’t save my son,” Jason says, “but if telling his story saves someone else’s child, then his story keeps helping the world.”

 

From Business Leader to Relentless Mental Health Advocate

 

Though Jason had built a thriving company, he realized nothing had prepared him for this mission. “I thought, I’m a business guy. I solve big problems. How do we fix teen suicide?” But as he dove deeper, he discovered a heartbreaking truth: extraordinary people were working tirelessly in youth mental health, yet the problem was too big, too fast-growing, and too misunderstood for any single solution. So, Jason shifted his approach. Instead of trying to solve the entire crisis, he focused on where he could have the greatest impact: parents.

 

Jason’s message is simple, but profound: Parents must own their children’s mental health the same way they own their children’s physical health. To advance this mission, Jason hosts free documentary screenings and speaks at schools, conferences, churches, businesses, and community events—connecting with parents not as a clinician or academic, but as a father who has lived every parent’s worst nightmare. “I missed the signs. I don’t want you to,” he says.

 

Founding Tell My Story: A Movement of Listening, Tools, and Connection

 

Based in Irvine, California and founded in 2018, Tell My Story brings youth mental health out of the shadows and into everyday conversations. Since then, the organization has collaborated with more than 50 community partners and national and international organizations, hosting over 200 events and screening its mental health documentaries more than 500 times.

 

Creating Tools That Help Families Connect

 

Jason oversees all Tell My Story initiatives, setting the nonprofit’s vision, producing its films, interviewing the young participants, and ensuring the organization stays grounded in grassroots, human-centered support. “This isn’t a billion-dollar problem requiring a billion-dollar solution,” he says. “This is families, neighbors, and communities learning how to talk to each other.”

 

Tell My Story offers resources parents can use immediately:
 

• The Tell My Story Card Deck, designed to help families break the silence and start meaningful conversations.

• Two mental-health-themed music albums produced with BMG Music, Songs for the Drive Home, created so parents and teens can open up together in the safety of a car ride.

• Films, events, and school programs that give both kids and parents the language to ask for help.

 

The Documentaries That Sparked a National Conversation

 

In 2020, Jason released Tell My Story, a feature-length documentary that premiered at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival. The film follows his journey across the Pacific Northwest, meeting parents, survivors, mental health leaders, psychiatrists, and teens. What he learned stunned him: kids who smile, laugh, and seem “fine” can be suffering deeply. “They hide it beautifully,” he says. “Ryan hid it. I had no idea.”

 

The follow-up film, What I Wish My Parents Knew, features raw, unfiltered interviews with 10 teens sharing the truths they struggle to tell the adults in their lives. The film has since been shared at over 300 schools, churches, corporate events, community gatherings, and organizations across the U.S. and internationally, each screening facilitated by a mental health professional to ensure a safe and supportive environment for discussion.

 

SHIFT — A New Film for a New Generation

 

Released in 2025, the newest documentary, SHIFT: Do What Moves You, flips the narrative from despair to possibility. It highlights young people leaning into art, music, sports, and passion-driven pursuits as pathways to mental wellness. The message is universal: even extraordinary kids—champion skateboarders, musicians, dancers—face self-doubt, bullying, and anxiety. What separates them is not perfection, but perseverance and purpose. “Kids need to see what it looks like to keep going,” Jason says.

 

The TEDx Talk: Understanding the World Our Kids Live In

 

Jason’s TEDx Talk, “The Hot Lava Game,” distills a core truth: the world today’s kids navigate is not the world their parents grew up in. They face 24/7 exposure to global conflict, online comparison, cyberbullying that follows them home, and unprecedented pressure amplified by social media and now AI. The takeaway is simple: Kids are overwhelmed, and parents must learn to listen without minimizing their struggles. “When they tell you their sky is full of clouds,” Jason says, “our job isn’t to convince them it’s sunny. It’s to ask about the clouds.”

 

A Message Parents Need and Kids Deserve

 

Jason’s work is not theoretical; it is deeply personal. The signs Ryan showed—more time alone, irritability—were subtle and easy to mistake for normal teenage behavior. “He was laughing and watching March Madness the week before,” Jason recalls. “They hide it because they don’t want to burden us.” That’s why his message to parents is unwavering: There aren’t enough therapists in the world to solve this crisis. Families must learn to talk, to listen, and to engage daily with their children’s emotional lives.

 

Carrying Ryan’s Legacy into the Future

 

Jason still signs every email, every message, and every keynote with the mission Ryan left behind:
Tell My Story. He speaks for the parents who never knew. He advocates for the kids who don’t yet have words. And he fights for a future where every child feels seen, supported, and worth staying for.

 

“My son asked me to tell his story,” he says. “I’m going to keep telling it until we end teen suicide—or until I take my last breath trying.”

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Jason Reid
CEO and Founder
Tell My Story
Website: www.tellmystory.org
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/jasonrreid     www.linkedin.com/company/tellmystory-org
Facebook: www.facebook.com/1tellmystory
Instagram: www.instagram.com/tellmystorycommunity