Selena Gomez has a few words to share…
This Mental Health Awareness Month, the 29-year-old Mexican American actress/singer has launched a new campaign about the importance of language.
Gomez, who has been an outspoken mental health advocate, took to social media on Sunday to announce the launch of a new campaign called Your Words Matter.
The initiative — which aims to “educate on the power of your words when talking about mental health,” according to a statement — is a partnership between Gomez’s makeup company Rare Beauty and Mental Health First Aid.
“Your words matter,” Gomez wrote to her 317 million followers on Instagram. “Join @RareBeauty for Mental Health Awareness Month as we share resources and bring awareness to the power of your words all month long on IG and RareBeauty.com/RareImpact. Together we can break the stigma.”
The Only Murders in the Building star’s post also included a screenshot of a powerful message she wrote on the Notes app of her phone.
“Words can be a barrier to people seeking help and increase the stigma associated with mental health. Many of these words have been normalized and accepted for far too long, but it’s time we bring awareness to the words we use… because they matter,” she wrote.
“Even in my own TikTok video, I now realize that my words matter and can have a powerful impact. Just like all of you, I’m learning every day. We may slip up, and that’s okay, what’s important is that we try to do better and give ourselves compassion.”
Rare Beauty offered some tips on Instagram about changing language to focus on the person and not their mental health. For example, instead of referring to someone as “a bipolar person,” one could say, “a person who has bipolar disorder.” Or changing “someone who committed suicide” to “a person who died by suicide.”
For last year’s Mental Health Awareness Month, Gomez and Rare Beauty launched the Mental Health 101 campaign, which is “dedicated to supporting mental health education and encouraging financial support for more mental health services in educational services,” she wrote on Instagram.
Gomez, who’s recently turned her sights on founding a mental wellness website called Wondermind, first opened up about her bipolar diagnosis on her Bright Minded Instagram Live series in April 2020.
In September 2019, she won the 2019 McClean Award for her mental health advocacy and detailed her struggles with anxiety and depression during her acceptance speech.
