Maggie Jackson’s Mental Health Advocacy, Family Values, and Road to Mrs. America
From personal tragedy to a powerful platform, Mrs. California Maggie Jackson is transforming the way people discuss mental health. As she prepares for the Mrs. America pageant, her journey blends advocacy, motherhood, and a commitment to authentic leadership.
Your Mind Matters: Born from Loss
Twelve years ago, Jackson lost her brother, who lived with bipolar disorder, to suicide. “He often said, ‘I just want to feel normal. I want to have a normal brain,” she recalls. “There was a lot of fear and concern about the stigma—worry that if anyone found out about his bipolar disorder, maybe they wouldn’t give him the job or a girl wouldn’t date him.”
The experience inspired her to launch Your Mind Matters, an initiative focused on reducing stigma and increasing access to support. “According to the World Health Organization, we lose someone to suicide every 40 seconds. It’s the second leading cause of death for young people in America. California has the second-highest suicide rate,” she explains.
Partnering with the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI), Jackson is training in their Ending the Silence program to educate middle and high school students about mental illness and suicide prevention. “That was around the time my brother started struggling—we saw a little bit in middle school, but in high school, it really escalated,” she says. “It was confusing because we wondered, is this just a wayward teen misbehaving, or is there something really there?”
Her mission is clear: normalize conversations about mental health. “People with Type 1 diabetes—we just talk about that and they take their medicine. I want us to view mental illness in the same way,” Jackson states. “With three out of five people knowing someone who’s died by suicide, there’s a large group of us who are connected, yet we’re not connecting and understanding each other.”
Balancing Advocacy and Family
A working mother of two, Jackson rejects the myth of perfect balance. “I don’t really believe in perfect balance,” she admits. “My strategy is just always to be the most present where I’m at.”
Her approach to parenting intertwines with her advocacy work. “As long as my children see mom happy and whole—which is a lot of the mental health piece—then I think they’re happy too,” she says. Her husband’s encouragement helped her pursue the pageant: “You only live once. If you win, it’s only for one year that you’re Mrs. California. We’ll figure it out.”
Core Values: Integrity and Kindness
Jackson and her husband focus on two principles for their children: integrity and kindness. “Integrity is who you are when no one is looking,” she says. “Kindness is so huge—we talk about it all the time. When I was dropping off my son at camp this morning, he was getting to the age where kids are starting to pick on each other, and I said, ‘You always be kind no matter what. It’s karma—it ends up coming back to you.’”
Her pageant philosophy mirrors these values: “Similar to how I said putting your best self forward on the pageant stage, it’s every day. Do your best where you are. You don’t have to be the best, but you have to do your best.”
For Jackson, Mrs. America is more than a competition—it’s a platform for impact. “There’s something about when you walk into a middle school with the crown and sash on and tell your story, it really makes an impact,” she notes.
While many contestants have years of pageant experience, Jackson believes her fresh approach is an advantage. Her advice: “Find your purpose and intention for doing it and make sure that aligns with your values.”
Her vision for the future includes expanding her advocacy and potentially launching a media platform. “Dream world would be to have a show that interviews people about their mental health journey, especially women, based on my personal experience.”
Authenticity remains at the heart of her message. “I’m an imperfect human who is constantly looking to make myself and the world better. There are a lot of problems sometimes in pageants of perfectionism—people just see the outside. I’m not perfect, but I’m always working on it.”
From her brother’s memory to her children’s future, Maggie Jackson is proving that vulnerability and purpose can change lives—one conversation at a time.