We really need to talk about suicide

This week, two people who were critical in my formation as an adult have decided to take their own lives, Kate Spade and Anthony Bourdain.

These were both two people I admired greatly early on in my life. Kate helped me feel validated that you could be both quirky and stylish, funny and fashionable, edgy and elegant.

And I used to watch Anthony Bourdain faithfully. From his days on the Travel Channel to Kitchen Confidential to Parts Unknown, I loved his no BS take on culture, travel, and food. Anthony made me want to be a travel writer.

They both have so many things in common; they were both pursuing their dreams on the public stage, they both embraced their own individuality and unique spin on the world, they gave us as a culture beautiful, funny, and thoughtful expressions of that individuality, they both appeared to be living the dream with wealth, renown, and lives many of us can only dream about, and both as of today, are gone.

Both Kate and Anthony suffered, unknown to us all, with their own demons. And rather share or even hint at the struggles they endured, for the sake of brands or reputations, or whatever else, they suffered until they could suffer no more. Both decided it would be better for them to end their own lives rather than continue on.