Jul
23,
2026
By Amy Phillips
Sweating it out together in a mosh pit, singing along with thousands of people simultaneously in chorus, or hearing a line in a song on a hard day that helps put everything back into perspective for you.
Music has always had the power to make people feel less alone.
As To Write Love on Her Arms founder Jamie Tworkowski says, “Music reminds us that we’re human. Our favorite songs give us permission to feel things deeply. Our favorite lyrics remind us that it’s okay to be honest.”
To Write Love on Her Arms, also known as TWLOHA, is a nonprofit dedicated to presenting hope and helping people struggling with depression, addiction, self-injury and suicide find the support and treatment they need.
Since its beginning in 2006, the organisation has invested more than $4.7 million directly into treatment and recovery, while helping make honest conversations about mental health more visible within the alternative music community and beyond.
The organisation is celebrating 20 years in action this weekend, marking the milestone with a special screening of its documentary, To Write Love, at the Art Theatre of Long Beach on Friday, July 24, on the eve of Vans Warped Tour Long Beach.
Following the screening, Tworkowski will be joined by Warped Tour founder Kevin Lyman, Renee Yohe and other special guests for a conversation about the movement’s origins, its impact and why its work continues to matter.
For Tworkowski, Warped Tour played an essential role in helping TWLOHA reach the people who needed its message.
“TWLOHA was a movement before it was a non-profit organization, which is an unusual way to start,” he says. “Most non-profits would love to become movements.”
“The Warped Tour community has been vital, not only in the early days of TWLOHA, but throughout the last 20 years. From people like Hayley Williams and Deon Rexroat from Anberlin wearing TWLOHA shirts on stage at Warped, to the thousands of conversations that have taken place at the TWLOHA tent, it’s hard to imagine this movement without Warped.”
Beyond the shirts, tents and conversations, it was the sense of belonging created by music that made the partnership such a natural one.
“And of course, the heart of the matter, the reason it’s a perfect fit, is because music reminds us that we’re human,” Tworkowski says.
“Our favorite songs give us permission to feel things deeply. Our favorite lyrics remind us that it’s okay to be honest. And in the context of Warped, there is also the community aspect, the power of belonging and the significance of a shared experience. All of that relates to mental health and suicide prevention.”
Two decades later, screening the documentary alongside Lyman on the eve of Warped Tour is a milestone Tworkowski says he could never have imagined when TWLOHA began.
“It’s not lost on me that getting to do this event with Kevin Lyman, getting to share this documentary on the evening before Warped Tour this is something truly special,” he says.
To Write Love weaves together conversations with some of TWLOHA’s most influential supporters, including members of Paramore, Anberlin and Switchfoot, as well as Miley Cyrus.
It also shares the voices of those whose lives have been changed by the movement and the people continuing to make mental health resources and treatment more accessible.
For the many people entering the theatre who first discovered TWLOHA as teenagers, Tworkowski hopes the documentary offers a chance to reflect on how far they have travelled alongside the movement.
“I hope that people are able to see themselves in the documentary,” he says.
“I hope it invites them to reflect on the story they’ve been living and the characters in their story. I hope it brings back good memories of when they found TWLOHA and what it meant to them back then.”
“I hope each person is able to feel a lot of compassion for who they were 20 years ago and 15 years ago, and also who they are today.”
For a movement that took off during the MySpace generation, a large contingent of the Warped Tour crowd this weekend will have never experienced the pressure of choosing their Top Friends for their profile.
Some may be discovering TWLOHA for the very first time.
For that younger Warped generation and for anyone still sitting silently with something they feel they have to carry alone Tworkowski hopes the documentary and the movement leave them with a simple message.
“Hope. Possibility. A reminder they’re alive and their life matters and it’s okay to ask for help.”
“We are all in this together.”
The To Write Love Watch Party and Q&A will take place at the Art Theatre of Long Beach from 7 to 8 p.m. on Friday, July 24. Proceeds from ticket sales will support TWLOHA’s Treatment & Recovery Program and its goal of funding 20,000 hours of mental health care.
