he following blog was written by a member of Girl Up’s Global Mental Health and Wellness Advisory Committee, a committee of youth dedicated to bringing more mental health and resources to global Girl Up community. After conducting research in their own communities, the advisory group identified three key issue areas, the first being the stigma surrounding getting mental health support. The following blog is part of a letter writing series that addresses the role of stigma; the campaign is youth-led, youth-written and youth-inspired.
In America, we are fluent in I’m fine.
We’ve built entire cities on the foundation of pretending. Skyscrapers of ambition, suburbs of
suppression.
“Keep going” is tattooed in the culture: on coffee cups, motivational posters,
corporate emails, and late-night thoughts that never let you sleep.
But beneath all the noise, something’s been quietly unraveling.
We’ve turned mental health into a buzzword. Made self-care a brand. We light candles, do yoga,
download meditation apps with notifications we always swipe away. We say “check in on your
friends” but don’t know how to respond when they say,
“Actually, I’m not okay.”
The truth is, we live in a place that glorifies independence and condemns vulnerability. Where
asking for help is brave, but also terrifying, because What if they don’t believe you? What if they
think you’re weak?
We reward productivity over presence. We teach children to perform happiness. We give
teenagers access to everything but never show them how to process anything.
Depression wears a blazer to work. Anxiety smiles at the party. Burnout graduates with honors.
Trauma sits quietly in board meetings. And Grief keeps scrolling like nothing happened.
We say, others have it worse. We say, just be grateful. But comparison is not a cure. Gratitude
doesn’t cancel out pain.
Here’s what we need to start saying:
It’s okay to be tired, even when you’ve had enough sleep.
It’s okay to be sad, even when nothing “bad” happened.
It’s okay to want support, even when you can stand on your own.
Because mental health is not a weakness. It’s not a luxury. It’s not something you earn once
your life is in perfect shape. It’s a part of being human: messy, loud, quiet, ugly, soft, complex.
We need spaces that hold us when we’re not okay. Systems that don’t abandon us. Language
that doesn’t shame us.
And most of all, we need to remember that healing doesn’t always look like getting better.
Sometimes, healing is just telling the truth about how bad it hurts.
Love,
Ananya
Don’t see your country represented? Submit a letter to be published! Email your draft to communications@girlup.org for a chance to be featured.
To read other letter, see here.
To learn more about the Mental Health and Wellness committee, visit our Instagram where you can see the group’s work featured.
