Local student puts in hard yards to raise funds for mental health research

A Narrogin student is getting her hair shaped into a mullet to help fund mental health research — a cause personal to her in more ways than one.

Each year, about five million Australians will struggle with the symptoms of mental illness.

The Black Dog Institute’s Mullets For Mental Health campaign encourages people to grow, shape and shave their mullets to raise funds for research that can help.

Annie Dewar, 16, said she was first inspired to grow her mullet and get involved two years ago, after seeing a couple of friends walk more than 500km from Kalgoorlie to Perth.

The WA College of Agriculture — Narrogin Year 11 student said she had struggled with anxiety since she was a child.

“Mental health has been in my family for generations and generations,” she said. “I have anxiety, and that can affect me in my daily life, but anything to help the research towards it and help other people around Australia, anything to help with that I'm happy to do.”

Alongside Annie’s close connection to mental health, she also has a close bond with her hair.

“I've had my crazy curly hair since I was younger. I didn’t get my hair until I was two and it just started going crazy and wild, which kind of represents my personality,” she said.

“People say to me ‘oh my God, Annie it’s your hair’, but sometimes in life you’ve got to take a step to complete the challenge.

“This is just my hair. It grows back.”

The mullet gets the chop on September 1. To donate, visit bit.ly/3zbDhq1.