H E A LT H
A MOTHER’S LOVE
Pop superstar Lady Gaga and her mother, Cynthia Germanotta, are on a mission to make the world a better place for young people through compassion and acceptance, a cause that is particularly timely: October is National Bullying Prevention Month, and October 3-9 is also Mental Illness Awareness Week. Here, Purist speaks with Germanotta about the Born This Way Foundation’s important work.
Lady Gaga and her mother, Cynthia, aim to eliminate childhood mental health issues that Gaga faced during her youth.
validate the emotions of young people, and work to eliminate the stigma around mental health. Kindness is the inspiration for my daughter’s life’s work, as well as her art. It’s why we created the foundation and why we build programs that validate the emotions of young people and create what is truly the transformative power of kindness.
CC: That’s so wonderful to hear. And the different initiatives and health programs you’ve set up across the country in schools before COVID, like the Channel Kindness Platform, how has the back-to-school initiative changed since 2020? CG: I’d say it’s upside down, you know? Even before these incredibly challenging years, we were seeing an increase in youth mental health conditions on many fronts—anxiety, depression and many other issues. And when faced with a global crisis, we had to adapt as advocates and leaders and work even harder to listen to and support the youth in this nation and beyond. We do have a digital platform; I and many members of my team have been able to speak out. We’re doing our best to meet young people where they are, and quite often, it’s online. We’ve seen a growing trend of young people being more willing to talk about their mental health. We’ve been focused on and fostering these conversations. You can see the urgency, and a lot of them want to help and be helped. But the reason they don’t go for help is they don’t know where to turn. That’s where we come in. They face significant barriers to getting the help they need, including the cost and the stigma, but fortunately we are seeing them turn to online resources 36
Courtesy of Cynthia Germanotta
Cristina Cuomo: Mental health issues are at an all-time high in the U.S. right now, so your Born This Way organization is more important than ever. We talk about mental health as a disease often in Purist, we have lots of doctors contributing, and throughout quarantine and COVID we talked about escalating numbers and what people can do to help their loved ones and friends get through this crisis. How did the idea for the foundation evolve? Cynthia Germanotta: The actual origin was from my daughter. I feel like it’s an idea that was evolving from her childhood. As she grew up and entered those difficult middle school years, she encountered bullying and many other things that led to her developing anxiety and depression. It turned school into a very difficult situation for her, and it continued through high school. It led to destructive behaviors that she talks openly about. And ultimately, it affected her so deeply, that when she gained a platform to speak, it became an even stronger passion of hers to share her story based on her struggles, and also to better equip young people who may encounter the same issues in their lives. We all go through things developmentally, and she has a very deep passion for equipping young people early. So we come at this from a preventive position. If we can prepare young people as soon as possible, they will have proper resources and tools to handle their struggles, and that is what we are all about. We’re founded on that, and our mission is to build a kinder and braver world that is youth-led, and at the core of that is mental wellness. Our goal is making kindness cool. We do this every day,
