One thing about Megan Thee Stallion: she’s going to speak out about mental health.
Fresh on the heels of dazzling audiences with a guest performance during the Houston stops on Beyoncé’s Renaissance Tour, Megan Thee Stallion is joining the Seize the Awkward campaign to help encourage young adults to reach out to their friends, including the “strong” ones.
According to a press release from the campaign, Megan stars in a new PSA “Check In On Your Friends” and opens up about her own struggles with mental health and the power of being vulnerable.
“Y’all, it’s okay to not be okay,” she says in the PSA while sitting on a wooden stool dressed in a simple pair of jeans, a black tank top, mauve satin platforms, with her hair in orangey brown curls.
“I’ve always been told, I gotta be strong. Thick skin. Stiff upper lip. Tough as nails. But to be everything for everybody,” she says as the music in the background swells along with images of cracks in marble. “It wears on you. Black don’t crack, they say, but it can. I can. We all can.”
Megan urges viewers to “reach out to a friend if you see them going through it. No matter who you are, being vulnerable is what makes us whole.”
This latest PSA from the campaign, launched in 2018 by the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (ASFP), comes at a time when suicide rates for Black Americans are on the rise.
According to the release, more than 75% of young adults in emotional crisis seek help from their peers. It is the goal of the campaign to prepare young adults to have those tough and vulnerable conversations with one another.
“I got involved with this campaign because I genuinely know what it feels like where I don’t want to open up, and I don’t want to talk about it,” Megan said, adding that she knows what it feels like to be embarrassed about how she feels. “I just want my hotties to know, let it out, tell somebody because somebody does care.”
In the release, Megan said she was “proud” to use her platform to team up with Seize the Awkward to further “normalize” conversations around mental health, and stressed the importance of checking in on our friends and family. “Show empathy, encouragement, and love when they’re struggling. A strong support system can make a powerful difference in someone’s life,” she said.
Megan, who has been vocal about her struggles with anxiety and depression, launched the website BadBitchesHaveBadDaysToo.com in September 2022 to share resources with her fans and anyone else seeking help and support.
Seize the Awkward’s latest PSA, “Check In On Your Friends,” made in partnership with the Ad Council, was developed pro bono by the creative agency Droga5, part of Accenture Song, and directed by Ewurakua Dawson-Amoah with Greenpoint Pictures, the release said. Courtney Richardson, creative director at Droga5, said in the release that too often, women of color are perceived as “strong.”
“It was imperative to prove that all friends should be checked on – no matter who they are or how they may appear to be,” she said. “Our campaign is a visual representation of when we are given a chance to be vulnerable, allowed to unapologetically open up and have hard conversations, that’s when our real emotions can crack the surface, and we can start to become whole.”
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