- [Man's Voice] Oh, no!
My bestie is a bad bitch.
(laughter)
(soft music)
- Hey everybody, welcome back to another episode
of what's happening with Katie.
And this is where we talk about the intersection
of pop culture and mental health.
Now, there is a lot to cover today since, as usual,
there's a lot going on in our world.
Today, we're gonna talk about Selena Gomez
and her new mental health platform.
We're gonna talk about Taylor Swift
and her rerelease of her "Red" album.
Also, what Lush Cosmetics is doing to draw attention
to social media's effects on our mental health,
and how some schools are using their COVID relief money
for mental health resources.
And we're also gonna discuss college sports
and their mental health initiatives and Grimes.
She's back online,
and she's talking about her anxiety and PTSD.
Okay, first up, we have Selena Gomez
launching her new mental health platform, Wondermind
with educational resources and in the (mumbles).
Wondermind is a mental health platform
focused on connecting people with educational resources
and ending the stigma around mental illness.
Selena has teamed up with her mom, Mandy Teefey,
and The Newsette founder and CEO Daniella Pierson
to create this media company,
which is set to launch in February of 2022.
Now, Selena has been pretty open about her own struggles
with mental illness and sharing her battles
with depression, anxiety, and just last year,
she shared her recent diagnosis of bipolar disorder.
She explains that once she knew more about the diagnosis,
it wasn't as scary as she originally thought,
which may be why a big part of Wondermind
is connecting people with important resources.
And I think there's a lot to this,
and it's is really important that people are, A,
easily connected to educational content
about their mental illness.
Hence why my YouTube channel existed in the first place
is because we don't know what we don't know, right?
And being able to turn to a reputable resource
and get information can be completely life-changing.
And also, I think it's really important
that we have more access to helpful resources because,
as we know, seeing a therapist, psychiatrist,
it can get very expensive,
it can be difficult if we're in a rural community.
And I just think this is gonna be a wonderful way
for people to get access more easily
to the mental health stuff that they need.
(electronic music)
Next, we're gonna talk about Taylor Swift's
rerelease of her "Red" album,
which has famously documented her relationships
with John Mayer, Harry Styles,
and most referenced, Jake Gyllenhaal.
But because I haven't kept up with all that's been going on
with the situation,
I wanna turn to my good friend
and faithful Swiftie, Jared Craft.
Take it over, Jared.
- Okay.
Thanks, Katie.
I am Jared, I am your resident Swift correspondent,
a self-proclaimed Swiftie,
and according to the 2021 Spotify wrapped,
I'm in the top 0.5% of Taylor Swift listeners on Spotify.
Just for some context and some background,
Taylor Swift is rerecording her first six albums.
The reason being is she didn't actually own that music,
that was owned by her record label.
When we're talking about the "Red" release,
the most important song,
or probably now famous song from that rerelease
is the full cut of "All Too Well."
Now, "All Too Well" is a song that is probably
the critic's favorites and the fan favorites
of Taylor Swift.
Now this original song was 10 minutes.
It was cut down to three to four minutes
for the original "Red" album,
and so as part of that, we get more context
into Taylor and Jake Gyllenhaal's relationship.
One thing that has come out of that song
and all of her social media, especially on Jake's comments,
is the scarf.
And so, Taylor often references the scarf in "All Too Well,"
and in this Swiftisphere or on SwiftTok,
it is largely accepted that the scarf
is just a metaphor for her virginity.
And so, we don't know if this is true or false
since Taylor does not comment on her actual music
or the details of her lyrics per se,
but what we do know is that this relationship
had a significant impact in her life.
When we look at these lyrics,
there was something about Jake
and ending with Jake that hurt her
in a really, really deep way.
This could be her virginity, it could not be.
What we do know about virginity is that it is very common,
especially in America, for people to hold it
in a very, very high regard and to save it
and to plan for it,
and with that comes a lot of expectations.
So if the scarf is truly a metaphor for her virginity,
we know that Taylor was leading up to this moment
and likely the end of this relationship
was more than just a three-month fling,
but it was also what this relationship stood for
or how she looked at it and its significance in her life.
I think regardless of the virginity or not piece,
it is clear that she had big expectations
and wrote, you know, a universe around this relationship.
When this ended, it's probably more
than just the three months
or the facts of this relationship ending,
but what Taylor Swift wrote the relationship
to be in her mind.
And likely, she wrote it to be several years,
if not a lifetime that included a marriage
and kids and spending holidays together.
So when something like that ends,
it's not just those three months ending,
it's an entire lifetime of romance
that you've made up in your head that has ended.
Despite some of us having different variables in our life,
a lot of us behave the same way and interact with each other
in the same way throughout, you know, this world.
Yeah, that's all I got for you guys today,
and I'm gonna toss it back to Katie.
- Taylor talks about how she writes her songs,
it's kind of like her form of journaling.
And I think there is something really important
and pivotal there even when you dig back in
and she's rereleasing this, like she said publicly,
it's like she's a different person now, right?
She's grown so much.
I think that's why journaling can be so powerful
because we don't often see the change day to day,
but when we jumped back 10 years or even six months,
then we can see just how far we've come.
And I think that could be really empowering and motivating,
which is part of the reason why I offer
twice weekly journal prompts through my YouTube memberships
because I think it's really that important.
(electronic music)
Onto a wonderful and surprising note,
Lush Cosmetics has recently removed themselves
from Instagram, Snapchat, Facebook, and TikTok
in an effort to draw attention to how those platforms
are damaging people's mental health.
Now, the brand plans to remain off social media
until the platforms take action
to provide a safer environment for users,
and that's what they said in their recent press release.
Now this new policy is gonna take place
across all 48 countries where Lush operates,
and it began on November 26th,
or otherwise known as Black Friday,
which I have to be honest, was really shocking to me
because that's one of the biggest shopping days
of the year in the US,
and they're really putting their money where their mouth is.
And after hearing what Facebook had known about Instagram
and the effects that it had on especially teenagers
and teenage girls and how their mental health deteriorated
being on social media for a long time,
I'm really proud of Lush
and I really appreciate that they're doing this.
I wish more people would because I think
it's kind of like strength in numbers,
and the more of us who stand up and speak up
and say things need to change, the better.
As someone who is on social media for a living,
I do notice that a lot of the apps,
like when I'm recording a YouTube short
or a TikTok or Instagram,
they allow you to filters and touch up your appearance.
And sometimes, I feel like it's kind of important
that we show who we really are
and what we really look like instead of just the highlights
or us with filters on
because we can lose sight of what real life
is supposed to be like.
And so when we get off of social media,
and I'm speaking personally here,
I look around at my own life and I'm like,
man, I'm not doing as well as them.
And that comparison factor can be so detrimental
to our mental health,
hence why one of my favorite quotes is
"Comparison is the thief of joy."
(electronic music)
In COVID news, many us schools are using their aid money
that they were given to create more mental health resources
for their students.
Hooray!
In Kansas City, Kansas,
they're opening up an afterschool mental health clinic
for students that will be staffed with counselors
and social workers.
And in Patterson, New Jersey,
they're putting together teams to help staff
more quickly detect when a student is in crisis,
which we know is so important.
And also in Chicago,
they're hiring care workers to help their students.
I can't imagine being a child that's supposed
to enter kindergarten and missing out
on that developmental period learning to engage
with other kids our age, to share, to interact,
all the social learning that happens
outside of even what we would call
the traditional classroom.
And not to mention,
high school and all of those big moments, right?
Like dances, and I know we can hate them
and look back on them and think,
oh, I wouldn't wanna go back there,
but it's also really important that we have those events
and we get to celebrate, right?
Getting our license,
driving with our friends, playing sports.
All of that allows us not only to engage more
with people our age and to get that social connection
that we need,
but it's also important for scholarships in our future.
And I feel like a lot of that's been taken from kids
and I'm really, really pleased that they're putting
their money where their mouth is,
they're opening up these clinics,
and I hope that more schools and more areas
will use their money this way.
(electronic music)
Also, in the college sports realm,
the Atlantic Coast Conference,
the Big 10, and PAC 12 launched Teammates for Mental Health.
Now, it's an initiative geared toward athletes
and coaches being on the lookout for any signs
that someone is struggling with their mental health.
And this is also the first time that these three conferences
have publicly collaborated,
and they're doing so in hopes that they can all share
in their best practices as they navigate
managing athlete wellness.
And also, Sean just let me know that the Montreal Canadiens,
go Habs, go,
are building a medical team dedicated
to the mental health of their players.
And this comes after their very own Carey Price
and Jonathan Drouin took time off to address
their own mental health issues,
because athlete mental health has become more prominent
since people like Simone Biles, Naomi Osaka,
and the others that I mentioned
had been talking more publicly about their own struggles.
When you play a sport at that level,
the amount of mental stress that you can feel,
it's not only just physical stress, it's mental stress,
and we need to have more resources available
so that we can manage all of that pressure.
And I think this should be starting
at younger and younger ages,
especially in high school when kids feel pressure to perform
in order to get scholarships
maybe that they need to go to school
because they can't afford it otherwise.
There's just so much when it comes to athletes
and our mental health.
I'm glad that we are talking about this more and more,
and I hope it will continue and it will grow
beyond what I just talked about.
(electronic music)
And finally, Grimes is back online
talking about her anxiety and PTSD
from all the publicity she received
over her relationship with Elon Musk.
- I know I've been a total hermit,
but frankly, I've developed like severe PTSD
from public life, which maybe everyone
can kind of relate to right now.
Cancellations aside, had all my personal shit
leaked by friends, which led to more depositions.
Had stalkers showing up at my house
trying to kill me when I'm eight months pregnant.
Frankly, it's fairly entertaining,
and I'm not mad at that.
Long story short, I've developed like debilitating anxiety
about being online,
which has been super annoying to my label, my team,
and me 'cause like,
fear is the mind killer, first of all.
If I'm gonna succumb to my own personal anxieties,
then what am I showing my kid, right?
- I'm really glad she's talking about this.
I know that a lot of times when it comes to celebrities
or people who have a lot of money,
we can assume that what happens to them
or what we even say maybe to them online
doesn't affect them the way it does us.
But you can tell this by the way that she talks
about her PTSD symptoms and her anxiety
that she's just really uncomfortable
and not really sure how to put words to it.
I think a lot of us can relate with that,
and I'm just glad that she's at least opening up,
being honest, and at the very least,
I hope that this encourages anyone else out there struggling
to come forward and speak up and get the help that they need
sooner rather than later.
- It's hard to speak about Taylor,
well, and to speak about Taylor Swift as a Swiftie,
in such short form.
(laughs)