With her new memoir “Pain to Power: I Choose to Love Myself”, Carmel Valley resident Masuda Rahmati is launching a global youth movement, using her own experiences to raise awareness about the teen mental health crisis and suicide prevention in San Diego.
“It’s a book about my life…it’s a story of every little girl going through pain,” Rahmati said. “My dream and goal was to share my struggles and share the secret code of overcoming so many issues and disadvantages.”
Since self-publishing the book, Rahmati now hopes to start a nonprofit for the “I Choose to Love Myself” movement, with the aim of becoming a public speaker for schools and corporations: “I am not speaking about courage theoretically…I lived it.”
Known by friends and colleagues as “Massie,” Rahmati has over 20 years of experience as a businesswoman, investor and real estate professional. Since 2010, she has split her time between Monterey and Carmel Valley, with her real estate office located in Rancho Santa Fe.
Masuda Rahmati’s first passport photo when she came to America from Afghanistan. (Courtesy Masuda Rahmati)
Born in Kabul, Afghanistan, Rahmati and her family escaped the country following the Soviet Union invasion in 1979. “As an 11-year-old confused little girl, I was very depressed and very hurt,” recalled Rahmati of her family’s initial escape to Pakistan, smuggled away in secret, losing an uncle and being forced to leave behind her beloved dog Jake.
After living in Pakistan for two years, the family was able to come to America in 1982, sponsored by a family member and landing in North Hollywood. Rahmati was 13 years old and experienced a lot of emotional discomfort in her new home—she couldn’t speak the language, she had no friends and was bullied in school. “I just didn’t want to live,” Rahmati said. “I wasn’t American and I wasn’t Afghan and I had so much pain.”
Her book shares her story of perseverance as a growing teenager and young woman—dedicating herself to her studies, learning the language, starting her first business at 14 teaching advanced algebra, and becoming an honor student and leader in high school when the family relocated to Carmel in Northern California. She overcame cultural barriers and weathered a difficult time at home when her parents got divorced.
The memoir recalls her journey attending UC Santa Cruz where she earned a degree in sociology with an emphasis on social psychology, battling stereotypes and discrimination to build a successful real estate career and how she became the first-ever Mrs. Afghanistan in the 2004 Mrs. World pageant, raising her voice for oppressed women.
The book also includes a collection of positive affirmations, like: “You are wonderfully different. Not weird. Not too much. Not too little…Your uniqueness is your strength. Your beauty is your signature.”
Rahmati has continued to support her native country as the president of the U.S. chapter of Change Makers of the World, which supports human rights initiatives in Afghanistan. She has also become involved in Flowers for the Future International, created by friend and Canyon Crest Academy teacher Timothy Stiven. This year Stiven was named a top 10 finalist in the Global Teacher Prize in recognition of his work with the global peer-to-peer educational program that has grown to impact the lives of 1,500 girls in Afghanistan over the last five years.
“I was in tears when I found out someone in my own city was helping Afghan girls, I cried and I cried and I cried,” Rahmati said. “For an American man to stand up for girls that he’s never met is beyond words and measure.”
It has always been Rahmati’s dream to share her personal story of turning her pain into power and she was inspired to finally make her dream a reality, self-publishing her book at age 56 after hearing stories from too many friends about the devastating and heartbreaking epidemic of suicide.
Sadly, over the last few years the local youth suicide rate in San Diego has ranked the highest in the state. According to the San Diego County Suicide Prevention Council’s 2025 report, suicide death rates among youth ages 10-24 increased by 6% from 2016 to 2023. Suicide accounted for nearly one in five deaths among San Diego youth and according to the California Healthy Kids Survey, about 11% of ninth graders reported thinking about suicide in the past year.
“I don’t care about being called an author, I’ve dedicated the rest of my life to save the lives of children here,” Rahmati said. “San Diego has been very supportive of this cause because we all know someone who has lost a child or teenager to this…there are so many angels unfortunately lost and gone too soon.”
If her story and movement can save just one life, it will be worth it, she said.
Masuda Rahmati, author of “Pain to Power: I Choose to Love Myself” (Alexandra Lambesis)
“It’s not just a book, it is a vital roadmap, a compassionate hand extended to every teenage girl navigating the turbulent waters of adolescence,” wrote Stiven in his review of her book. “Rahmati offers an academic textbook—a manual from feeling victimized by external circumstances to becoming the architect of one’s own happiness.”
Rahmati shared her gratitude for Adam Loew, her real estate partner from Keller Williams, who has joined her movement as a sponsor and philanthropist, purchasing books to donate to teens struggling with depression and mental health. The luxury real estate team will also be contributing a portion of the proceeds from their commissions toward the global youth movement.
The “I Choose to Love Myself” movement has also been sponsored by Stephen Scola, a real estate broker at Scola Properties in Del Mar, and Jeff Kane, president at Coldwell Banker Commercial West, both inspired by Rahmati’s story of resilience.
Rahmati said she hopes her message reaches anyone who is struggling at any phase of their life, to encourage them that transformation is possible. She hopes to help people grow from discomfort, turn challenges into strength and, like herself, be inspired to uplift others.
Those who are willing to support the movement can contact Rahmati directly at MasudaRahmati@gmail.com
“Pain to Power: I Choose to Love Myself” is available on Amazon.com.