- Hey everyone, this is Jen Warnick from Starbucks Stories,
and I am honored to be here today recording
from my home office (giggling) with Maya Smith,
the executive director of Born This Way Foundation.
Hey Maya!
- Hey Jen!
Thank you so much for having me.
You know the Starbucks folks are my favorite,
so I'm so excited to be here with you for Starbucks Stories.
- Can you tell us more about
what Born This Way Foundation does
and whether or not that's different right now
with everything that's going on in the world?
- Born This Way Foundation
was founded eight years ago last month.
We're founded by Lady Gaga and her mom, Cynthia Germanotta.
We work to make kindness cool,
to validate the emotions of people around the world,
and to eliminate the stigma around mental health.
The work of Born This Way Foundation
was the same pre-COVID as it's been post-COVID.
I think that the urgency
and opportunity has grown in new ways.
- This is such a wild time for everyone
and it's really easy to get stuck
in your sort of small orbit and in this sort of spiral
of fear and anxiety and uncertainty.
So how, on this roller coaster that we are all on together,
can we look to things like showing kindness
and expressing gratitude as sort of anchors in all of this?
- First I wanna say for everyone watching,
however you're feeling and whatever you're doing
to cope with those emotions, that's okay, right?
There's some days where sitting up is a win.
There're some days where taking a shower is great.
And there's some days where you go for a run
and plant a garden and decoupage and that's all great.
So however you're dealing with the feelings
that you're having, the only thing I wanna make sure
that everyone here knows is that they're not alone.
One of my favorite resources is Find Your Anchor box
and it was created by a friend named Ali Borowksy
who survived four attempts at suicide,
and I'm so grateful that she's still here with us.
But, as she was going through her challenges,
she realized, as you said, Jen, that she needed
to look for anchors, she needed to look for things
that connected her to the world,
and she created Find Your Anchor box,
which is a customized resource.
There's 52 reasons to live, there's a bracelet that says,
"You are loved," and then there's these personal notes.
It says, "You are so incredibly loved,"
and then the person's name.
So I have been writing post-its, all day, every day.
I think I'm a good executive director.
I think I'm okay on the wife front.
I am a really bad first grade teacher.
So, we have been writing thank you cards to our teachers.
And this also counts as practicing your letters, I guess.
So please take the time to thank people.
Starbucks has an incredible partnership
with Operation Gratitude, so I have been writing letters.
And then my mom is in hospice in Boston,
and there's an amazing organization
called Love for the Elderly, because so many older people
just have really lost the physical connection,
and social connection, that they're used to.
And so how can we reach out?
So there's an amazing organization
that Born This Way is proud to work with
called Love for the Elderly.
So if you check out Love, and the number four, the Elderly,
you can find a pen pal, a senior citizen pen pal,
and spread some cheer that way.
So those are just a couple incredible organizations
offering people a way to continue to be kind these days.
- I think that mental health is
at the forefront for everyone in a way
that it possibly has not been before in our lifetime.
What do you think are the good things about that,
and what do you think are the things
we can actually learn from and grow from?
- That's a great question and I would never
in my wildest dreams have thought
we would be in this type of situation.
But when I think about the third goal of the foundation,
eliminating the stigma around mental health,
this confluence of events presents us
just such an unprecedented opportunity to focus on,
to fund, to amplify, to support mental health.
Just the importance of building a culture
where we're just as proactive about our mental health
as we are about our physical health.
And you're right, I've seen it
talked about in so many different ways.
So when we think about this new normal,
about how we care for ourselves and each other after this,
I hope mental health stays a big part of the puzzle
and that we think about, did you get outside?
Did you meditate?
Did you talk to someone?
How long has it been since you've reached out to somebody?
What are the small ways that we can show someone
that we're thinking about them?
Who do you talk to?
Who's that trusted person that when you're going through
the roller coaster of emotions, who's there for you?
And so those conversations are really,
really important to continue.
So I think if we continue to tell stories about
why this moment is important and why mental health matters,
then we'll really see some substantive change.
- Thank you so much for being here with us today, Maya.
It was amazing to be able to talk to you right now.
- Have a great day!
- Okay, bye.
- [Maya] Bye!