- And we have a love letter to her.
Take a look. (upbeat music)
Cynthia Germanotta does it all.
She is a business woman,
a Goodwill Ambassador and mother to Natalie and Stephanie,
better known to the world by her stage name, Lady Gaga.
Cynthia knew that Stephanie was unique from a young age,
but says Stephanie's uniqueness
and fierce independence made her the target
of some high school bullies.
Cynthia struggled with how to best support her daughter
and despite decades of global success,
neither mother nor daughter has ever forgotten
how it felt to be ostracized for just being yourself.
And so in 2012, they founded the Born This Way Foundation
to support the mental health of young people.
They've taken direct steps to help children
and their parents access resources, take direct action
and build community.
They're on the right track, baby.
And we're so thankful to them
for creating a kinder, braver world for all of us.
Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome Cynthia Germanotta.
(audience clap) (upbeat music)
I'm gonna cry.
- I love you, you're wonderful.
- Thank you so much for coming here.
Thank you. - Thank you for having me.
- I'm so grateful that you would come here.
- I'm so grateful that you would have me.
I'm pinching myself.
- My goodness, you're so beautiful too by the the way.
- You're so beautiful.
And you're so beautiful. (audience clap)
- I'm just so honored that you had come here today.
What was the spark may I ask
for starting the Born This Way Foundation?
Was there a moment or an instance?
I know there's history there.
- The things that inspired the foundation,
they were a couple of things.
The first was kindness
or what I would call the absence of kindness.
She's written about something she calls negative space,
and it's a moment when somebody is unkind to you
and there's a negative space.
And you as a human being have an opportunity
to fill that space with kindness.
And because there were many moments
where that space wasn't filled for her,
it affected her very, very deeply.
And kindness had a really transformative impact
on her life.
And because it was absent, she developed anxiety
and depression at a very, very young age.
The other inspiration were the incredible stories
that we heard from young people all over the world
as she started to tour and travel,
and we made it a point to sit down with them
and talk to them and understand how they were feeling
and what was happening in their lives.
And the stories were so similar to hers.
And that said, these young people,
they wanted to be part of a change.
And they were like, "Gaga, how did you do it?
"How did you turn your life around?
"What were the things that you did?"
And those stories impacted both of us very deeply.
And I remember one instance,
we were in Paris and she was touring
and we heard just incredible heartfelt stories.
And we got on the plane to come home
and we fasten your seatbelt.
We strapped in
and she looked at me and said, "Mom, it's time."
And I said, "Time for what?"
And she said, "It's time to help these kids."
Now, she's a kid at the same time telling me
that she wants to help other young people be kinder
and braver to one another and have resources,
be better equipped to deal with their struggles
than she felt that she was.
And that was the real genesis of the foundation.
(upbeat music)