About our Founder

Like you, mental health advocate and nonprofit CEO Lauren McKeaney has heard self-acceptance defined in many ways. Is it an awareness of your strengths and weaknesses? Not judging yourself? A happy attitude? Saying “I am what I am” aloud? Or could it be life-saving?

After almost losing her leg to the newly recognized mental illness Dermatillomania aka Excoriation (Skin Picking) Disorder in 2014, Lauren set out to transform her and other sufferers’ anguish over this misunderstood, stigmatized in the already stigmatized mental health community disorder, into tangible, life-changing answers and actions. In 2016 Lauren founded the only nonprofit worldwide focused on Skin Picking Disorder, the Picking Me Foundation NFP, which funds a myriad of initiatives that provide awareness, support, and advocacy for sufferers, supporters, and educational communities alike encouraging individuals to choose themselves over the mental illness that chose them.

With over 27 years of personal, real life experience with Dermatillomania and an authentic, conversational, and quirky manner that connects and inspires her audience, Lauren offers an intimate and unique understanding of the illness, which she has been invited to share at numerous presentations, panel discussions, and exhibitions nationwide. Lauren appreciates, and shares with listeners, that practice makes progress not perfect, that self-love isn’t selfish, it’s self-care, and how #PickingMe over Skin Picking is the ultimate freedom.