Harry Peng

Founder,
Artists and Athletes United

Harry Peng is a 16 year old secondary school student pursuing professional and personal growth at the intersectionality of art, athletics and mental health. 

Since he was born, he has always been the kid that is chasing something. He is always late to something, such as late to school and tests. Moreover, he was late to anything he wanted to learn. For example, hockey is a sport he played starting in third grade, although he started at third grade he didn’t take it seriously until Grade 5, and as such, there was a big gap between him and other players. He needed to put in extra time and effort just to get to the same level as them, and he learned better time management and discipline over time. 

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At high school, his top three areas of interest are art, athletics and mental health. He hopes to integrate the topics of art and sport that are very important to teenager’s mental health, because he feels like this topic has not been taken seriously enough. 

Throughout his life, he has observed many instances where the “fight or flight” mentality has failed to protect and safeguard lives, and often self-harm has been blamed on broad strokes of “Hard Luck” or “Hard Life”. As a society, we need to do more investigation to break the chain - esp for the marginalized, discriminated and oppressed To create systems change, he has founded Artists and Athletes United, a youth-led organization advocating for preventive approaches towards better mental health through arts, sports and culture.  

Looking ahead to when Harry is 25 years old, he aims to have undertaken both research and real working experience in this area. In the long run, he seeks to gain credibility and respect for being one of the founders of a mental health related social enterprise.