Lily Lopez Fund

Hello, my name is Lily Lopez (formerly known as Juanito). I am 27 years old, I was born in Venezuela and moved to United States in 2012. I went to college in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania from 2014 and graduated in 2016 with a Bachelor degree in Art and Filmmaking. I moved to NYC the summer of 2017 to pursue a career. I didn’t just know what I wanted to do. I worked in photography for some time until I had set back … In 2019, I invited a guy over from Grindr who stole all my equipment , my camera, my laptop and my hard drive and I lost all my work and all the projects I was working on at the time. I felt lost but luckily I was able to get a new camera from a friend who gave it to me, but the camera is old and is hard to work with. Around that time I was going through a lot psychological issues that were triggering me in my daily life that took me time to understand. I couldn’t go to a therapist because my doubts made me not do it. I’ve been lucky enough to have friends that have supported my journey but since the beginning of the COVID pandemic I have faced many difficulties, specially finding a job and getting legal papers in the USA. It’s been a while since I’ve been dealing with body dysmorphia and I started my transition on January of 2022 with the excellent help of the NYC health department, I will also use the funds to cover some of the costs of my transition.  Unfortunately, my road hasn’t been that easy . Without papers I’m not able to work, my last job that was paying me cash , was a triggering and anxiety inducing experience, since I was being sexually harassed on the daily, so much distress went during that time that I have to leave the job.

I’m left with a big debt to the university I went to school in Pittsburgh and I’m not able to get my diploma or transcripts from the university until I pay them. I was also getting help from the government of Venezuela to pay for my educatiob hete but they stopped years ago when the difficult political unrest in the country started to affect the quality of life of many Venezuelans overseas. 

Moreover, I’ve been dealing with severe anxiety, abandonment issues and the older I get the more these feelings trigger me leaving hopeless and depressed.

I had started taking medication for depression but It did not help and the insurance won’t cover a lot of the help I need because my immigration status failed because I’ve been waiting for a half a year for them to be approved and I’ve been on waitlist for a month to find a therapist that suits my current mental state.

My current living situation is not the best. I’ve been moving from place to place and I’ve been feeling so uncomfortable living with other people who can’t fully understand what I’m going through. I feel like a liability and it breaks me heart to put people through the same hell I’m going through.

Without money is hard to continue working in pursuing my dreams and I’m kindly asking this community to help me raise funds for me.

I Never thought that I would be creating a GoFundMe but I’m feeling panic, fear and a huge desperation that sometimes makes my mind go to dark places… places I don’t want to be in.

With the money I want to buy a new better laptop where I can work on and hopefully make money with my photography and filmmaking. It’s a passion that I don’t want to lose but unfortunately with time has been fading away… I know I have talents and that I can make this work again for me, so please if you can help me reach my goal you would make a little kid from Venezuela with big dreams, achieve many of her goals. I will also use the money to find better housing and a place where I can create and continue making art. Some of the costs would also help me a lot with my transition. That’s my promise.

Thank you so much and I appreciate each and everyone of you who can help me reach my goal. Anything helps.

Big hug,

Lily