Entrepreneur, founder of Breathe. From Steph Adams’s interview archive.
Tatiana Blatnik has dedicated her career creating partnerships for social impact. Guided by her passion for giving a voice to others, heritage-based projects and a holistic approach to healthy living.
I have always been drawn to human connection, storytelling, social impact, health and healing. As a child I spent most of my time in the kitchen, learning to cook, using food as a way of connecting the family to bring people together and also as a way of connecting my own roots and identity. Food was my identity for a long time as we moved around. It tied my Venezuelan heritage with my mother’s Spanish upbringing and German roots and the list goes on. I was blessed to have been brought up by someone that knew about healing through herbs and this ancestral knowledge stayed with me. It has continued to stay with me. I also love to help others, leading community service and through various bake sales.
I decided to study Sociology at Georgetown University as people, patterns and building healthier communities is a topic that fascinated me.
From a young age, I have also loved acting. I was very interested in identifying the tools that people use to find strength through adversity. That curiosity, along with a deep love for travelling and getting to know different people and places in the world has shaped and defined my path toward wellness.
The beginning of Breathe
Breathe wasn’t born from a single moment—it was a series of experiences, realisations and a core part of my personal story. After losing my father to suicide, I saw first-hand how stigma can keep people from seeking help. This fuels our mission and drives our goal at Breathe: to raise awareness, promote self-care and ensure mental health resources are accessible to all. We have been able to reach individuals and families who need it most.
Breathe was created to ensure that no one feels alone in their struggles and that mental well-being is treated as a priority, not a privilege. A central element of our work and one of our proudest milestones is our partnership with the Kevin Love Fund (KLF) in the US. Established by NBA Champion and Olympic Gold medallist Kevin Love, after experiencing a public panic attack, the Kevin Love Fund is committed to equipping young people and educators with the tools to develop emotional resilience. Their Social Emotional Learning (SEL) curriculum, which we are now scaling globally together, has already impacted over 100,000 children and adolescents across more than twenty countries, demonstrating the powerful effect of comprehensive mental health education.
I am very proud of this initiative and what makes our partnership even more significant to me is that both our organisations are women-led, adding an extra layer of meaning, grace and boldness to our collaboration.
At Breathe, we are honoured to have the auspices of the Greek Ministry of Health, the Greek Ministry of Education and Ministry of Sports, The Hellenic Olympic Committee, working closely with the World Health Organisation – our global partners, the Stavros Niarchos Foundation, The Hellenic Initiative, the Stelios Haji-Ioannou Foundation, The Petrocheilos Foundation and the Maria Tsakos Public Benefit Foundation.