Lexy's teen years were full of turmoil. She turned her trauma into a $2.5million business.

When you’re going through a hard time, the best thing to do is reach out for support. But that’s not always easy. What if the people around you aren’t able to offer the support you need? And what if you’re so weighed down by your struggle that you can’t figure out where to start, let alone access the money or means to see to a GP or therapist?

That was the situation Lexy McDonald, now 21, found herself in as a young teen experiencing bullying at school. At home, things were also fraught, with her parents in the midst of divorcing. It wasn’t until age 17, when Lexy had moved to a friendlier school and was in a more settled home environment, that an idea took hold of her imagination and wouldn’t let go.

That vision: to create a mental health and wellness app to provide the support she wished she’d had when she was struggling. 

Today, that app – HerHelp – has thousands of users, and was recently valued at $2.5 million by a potential investor.

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“When you’re in a pressure cooker with 30 kids who are nasty to you, and that’s your world, you don’t have [any perspective] outside of that. I really, really struggled and it took a toll,” Lexy, who hails from Bunbury, WA, told Mamamia.

“Probably the biggest feeling was that feeling of loneliness and lack of support. Don’t get me wrong – I had the most incredible mum and dad, and they did everything they could, but I could see that their issues were a lot bigger than mine.”

Determined to provide a forum for other women to support and encourage each other through difficult situations, Lexy created the first prototype of HerHelp while still at school, by following YouTube tutorials on coding. Although it was “super basic” and she didn’t promote it much, HerHelp gathered more than 10,000 users over six months. 

“That was a big moment for me to be like, okay, this could be something more – like, there is a need for it. There were five girls in that six months who told me that they wouldn’t be alive without the platform. So it really took on a life of its own,” Lexy said.

But turning HerHelp into a slick app that would appeal to a global audience of all ages was a big ask for someone with no professional coding experience. After a development company quoted her $2 million to take HerHelp to the next level, she almost threw in the towel. And there was a more immediate problem: the qualified professionals (the various psychologists, relationship coaches and personal trainers) she’d contracted to create HerHelp’s wellbeing content all needed to be paid regularly. 

While frantically applying for grants and pitching to investors to help her scale up, Lexy continued working part-time at a fish 'n’ chips shop to keep the lights on. 

“I had people offering me crazy amounts of money to get the app developed, but they wanted a percentage of the business. My whole vision has never driven around profit, it’s always been people first and making sure that this was an app that people could use, so it just didn’t feel right having someone owning a percentage who didn’t have the same vision as I had for it – you know, this 60-year-old bloke who has no idea what this app is.”

Instead, she turned to her stepfather, an engineer who had learned to code 20 years ago when he’d made a wool-testing machine – not exactly a natural fit for the project.

“He said, ‘Lex, I understand code. I don’t use my phone. I don’t know what an app is. But let me give it a go.’ So he went out that afternoon and bought a MacBook.”

Over 18 months, the pair spent hours during the evenings after work developing HerHelp into the vibrant, informative app it is today. In the past seven months, the app has reached more than 100,000 people, Lexy told us proudly.

Image: Supplied.

HerHelp is free to download, and its support forums and mental health content are available to all users. But the specialised wellbeing content created by professionals is only available to paid subscribers.

Now that the app is profitable, Lexy’s able to work on it full time, and has employed a part-timer to help her keep the wheels turning. There’s a lot to manage, but the rewards are immense. Plus, creating HerHelp has helped Lexy grow from her own challenging experiences, she explained.

“I hear a lot: ‘Be the woman you wanted as a girl.’ And watching girls using the app that I would have loved to have had is just everything."

If you need someone to talk to, and you're based in Australia, 24-hour support is available through Lifeline on 13 11 14 or beyondblue on 1300 22 4636.

Feature Image: Supplied.