🍞 She found her bread and butter

Kitty Tait was only 14 when she battled her first major bout of depression. Her mental health plummeted, leading the UK teen to question "what it was all for." According to the now 21-year-old: "I became a shell, [I would] just lay in bed and wouldn't leave the house. I almost couldn't form sentences.” 

Kitty's therapist suggested she find a hobby to help bring some purpose and joy back into her life. She tried gardening, knitting, and drawing.... but none of them stuck. 

Then she tried baking. 

Her bread and butter: Kitty became fascinated with baking bread after watching her dad, Alex, successfully bake a simple, no-knead bread recipe in the family's oven. Wanting to give it a shot, she rolled up her sleeves and gathered some ingredients. 

The rest, as they say, is history❤️.

Baking bread soon took over Kitty's life in the best way; the teen found a new sense of purpose in her daily bakes. 

• “Baking filled my time and put me in a really calm state, but it also gave me a huge sense of purpose when all I really felt like was a burden,” she shared. 
• “I’m naturally quite a people pleaser, and the lovely thing was I could make a loaf, and then give it to someone to enjoy.”

Word started to spread throughout Kitty's UK town about her delicious bakes. She then started charging for her homemade loaves. Less than a year later, in 2019, Kitty and her dad opened their own brick-and-mortar location.

• Kitty also founded Breaducating Britain, a social project with the mission to "demysify baking, and share with everyone what she knows to be the many benefits of great quality bread." 

🍞 Bottom line: The storefront has since closed, but Kitty has no plans of ending her career with bread any time soon. More than anything, she's grateful for how her passion has helped her mentally. 

"Bread has given me so much joy," she told Positive News. "It’s a joy to make, eat, and teach. What I’d love is for all kids and adults to understand that bread is something really simple that we can all make at home."