With World Mental Health Day Around The Corner, Here's a Look At 10 Celebs Who Are Mental Health Champions

Several Celebrities Have Been Working Towards Spreading Awareness Around Mental Health

Mental illnesses often carry stigma and misconceptions which make it harder for people with such disorders to open up and share their problems. People face judgment, harassment, disappointment or rejection from those who do not understand due to a lack of awareness. Experts, several organizations and even celebrities are doing everything possible to raise awareness about normalizing mental health conversations, and increase advocacy for those in need. As the world observes the Mental Health Day on October 10, here’s a look at 10 celebrities who have advocated mental health awareness.

1. Selena Gomez

Actress and singer Selena Gomez faced a lot of media attention and scrutiny growing up as a child actress. She has often spoken about her struggles with anxiety and depression. She has also advocated the importance of mental health. She talks about her struggles through social media and raises awareness through her beauty brand Rare. She has collaborated with various platforms such as Wondermind and she won the 2019 McLean Award for Mental Health Advocacy.

2. Glenn Close

Award-winning actress Glenn Close has dedicated her life to fighting the stigma surrounding mental illnesses. In 2008, she was diagnosed with depression at the age of 61. Her sister Jessie suffers from bipolar disorder. It was Jessie’s condition that led to Close volunteering for mental health disorders and in 2010, she launched the nonprofit Bring Change 2 Mind to raise awareness. As per Sky News, over a billion people have viewed the organization’s PSA interviews, which have featured Wayne Brady and NFL wide receiver Brandon Marshall sharing their stories.

3. Prince Harry

Prince Harry has been vocal about his struggles with mental health and coping with the death of his mother, Princess Diana. He has even written about his breakdown in his memoir and spoken about it in several interviews. Recently, Prince Harry launched the mental health charity ‘Heads Together’ along his brother William, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge. The Heads Together campaign works with other charities to change the national conversation on mental well-being, as per its website.

4. Ariana Grande

Ariana Grande has been championing mental health since she was diagnosed with PTSD. Grande has often spoken about her struggles with anxiety and depression. Grande once shared images from a brain scan that showed the difference between a healthy brain and her brain, resembling the symptoms of PTSD. In 2021, she partnered with online therapy provider Better Help on the occasion of World Mental Health Day and pledged $5 million to provide free therapy for those in need.

5. Emma Stone

Emma Stone also came forward to adocate professional help for mental health issues. The actress has publicly talked about her struggles with anxiety and panic attacks and shared how she uses her emotions to fuel her acting. During the Covid pandemic in 2020, Stone kicked off the campaign #WeThriveInside campaign in collaboration with the Child Mind Institute. The campaign extended support to those struggling with isolation and anxiety from staying at home. She is also a regular collaborator with various organizations that educate people about psychological issues.

5. Meghan Markle

Meghan Markle has struggled in her rise to royalty. She has been open about the mental health struggles she has been through. In an interview with Oprah Winfrey in 2021, she first opened up about her mental health journey and revealed that she was having suicidal thoughts at one point in her life. Markle and Prince Harry's Archewell Foundation works with charities that advocate for mental health, the racial justice movement, and diversity in media.

6. Justin Bieber

Justin Bieber gave his fans a glimpse of his struggles with addiction and mental health challenges in his YouTube docuseries “Seasons”. Bieber revealed how he got help and replaced illegal substances with antidepressants, urging his fans to take the path of therapy as well. In his efforts to help people in need, Bieber once gave a fan $100,000 to support her career in social work. Part of the donation helped her attend grad school while the rest of it went to Active Minds, an organization that raises mental health awareness for college students, as per Volunteerfdip.

7. Demi Lovato

Actor and singer Demi Lovato is a prominent advocate of mental health being a patient of a mental illness. They have been a mental health activist since 2015 after they were diagnosed with the condition of bipolar disorder. Lovato founded the Mental Health Fund, which provided free counseling during the COVID-19 pandemic. Their charity also works with other organizations to raise money for the Crisis Text Line and crisis counseling options in Canada and the United Kingdom as well.

8. Kristen Bell

Actor Kristen Bell has been using her global platform to spread awareness as a passionate mental health advocate. The “Frozen” star and the voice of “Gossip Girl” has talked about her struggles with depression and anxiety since she was 18 years old. Bell has stated that mental health check-ins should be as common as going to the dentist or doctor and urged her fans to make their mental health a priority as there is no shame in asking for help.

9. Stephen Fry

In his 2006 documentary, “The Secret Life of the Manic Depressive”, actor Stephen Fry revealed that he was diagnosed with bipolar disorder at age 37, and faced near-death experiences when he hit the lows of his life. Since then, Fry has advocated for mental. He he has been serving as the president of the organization ‘MIND’ since 2011. The mental health charity in England and Wales offers help to people suffering from mental illnesses and lobbies with the government to extend support to those in need.

10. Michael B. Jordan

One of the most widely known actors, Michael B. Jordan has publicly shared his traumatic experience of going back to his old self after playing the role of “Killmonger” in the Marvel film “Black Panther”. In an interview with Oprah Winfrey, the actor talked about the stigma that surrounds mental health issues in Black communities. Serving as a model for many African-Americans, Jordan iss on a mission to create a positive outlook on mental health.