My mother always taught me, “When life gives you lemons, make lemonade.” Twenty-year-old cancer survivor Yali Derman is doing just that, and then some.

Yali may live on the North Shore, but her goodwill is stretching all the way to Skyline turf. I hope you can attend her upcoming event at 5 p.m. Aug. 23 at the Museum of Contemporary Art, 220 E. Chicago Ave.

That evening, as part of a creative community partnership with the MCA and Children’s Memorial Hospital, Yali will speak about the connection between art and healing. She’ll also sign and sell her $85 limited edition Yali’s Carry On tote, a “functional, beautiful and inspirational” handbag whose sales have been raising big bucks for charitable endeavors.

“Having my bags at the MCA highlights a true creative partnership, being healed and assisting those who need to be healed,” said Yali, a junior at the University of Pennsylvania’s School of Nursing. “Art speaks to the power of healing, and the purse has a power beyond being an arm accessory.”

Proceeds from the event and from MCA gift shop sales of the bag for the next two months benefit the museum and K.I.D.S.S. for Kids (Kindness is Doing Something Special for Kids), a Children’s Memorial organization supporting family services in the hospital. Any money Yali raises from bags bought outside the museum’s walls supports artistic and creative space at the new Children’s Memorial building, the Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital, opening June 2012.

So far, Yali has raised $94,000 of her $100,000 goal.

“I’m going to keep raising and keep designing and I’ll set a new goal,” she said.

It was while recovering from being treated for her second bout of acute lymphocytic leukemia (a disease she first was treated for with chemotherapy at age 5, and then again at age 10) that Yali started designing handbags. After undergoing a transplant involving a bone marrow donation from her big brother Benji (a medical student at Northwestern and Streeterville resident), Yali’s immune system was extremely weak. Because of her condition, she spent the next month in close observation at Children’s Memorial, followed by a year at home in complete isolation.

Her first bags were made during her month in the hospital, from traditional paisley bandanas that she was given to cover her head, which was hairless from chemotherapy.

“Everybody gives you those bandanas when you lose your hair, that’s the symbol of going through chemo,” said Yali. “I really wanted to transform this experience into something different. Bandanas just weren’t me, I like bags. So I sewed them together, and gave them to nurses. It was my act of rebellion.”

At 17, the Make-A-Wish Foundation hooked Yali up with designer Kate Spade. The two created the Yali Bag, which raised $50,000 for the foundation (the first bag was sold to Maggie Daley). Then, as a high school senior, Yali launched Yali’s Carry On, and began her alliance with K.I.D.S.S. for Kids.

Her totes, designed with 18 colors and a colorful peacock with paisley feathers, are filled with symbolism and are a modern interpretation of her original bandana bags. Yali said her tote signifies how cancer survivors — or anyone facing challenges — can carry on “even in the face of medical baggage.”

She credits her parents, doctors Carol Rosenberg and Gordon Derman, with teaching her that constantly being creative is part of healing.

“That’s the message I carry on now,” said Yali. “That’s what I make my legacy.”