https://www.washingtonpost.com/washington-post-live/2026/05/08/well-being-youth-mental-health/
MS. MARTIN: Thank you so much for having me.
MS. STEAD SELLERS: Well, we’re delighted to talk about this important topic, and let’s get back to those numbers I was just mentioning. Forty percent of high school students report feelings of persistent sadness or hopelessness. What does that look like from the foundation, from the ground, where you’re really examining what’s happening?
MS. MARTIN: Yeah. I think, so a few things. First, I think it’s important to remember that young people across America are having really disparate experiences, and it can be tempting to kind of have this conversation as if there is one young person and we’re just worried about their young well-being. There’s millions of young people across the country that are having really different experiences, impacted by all of the different factors in their life, depending on where they are geographically, what’s going on with their family, what’s going on at home and at school.
So the perspective the foundation takes is that first and foremost we need to be in conversation and really in partnership with young people themselves. If we focus there and that is the on-ramp to figuring out what solutions are going to be, we are going to be able to really dial in for all of those diverse young people, what different solutions need to look like for different young people at different phases of their lives.
MS. STEAD SELLERS: So the foundation was built on this notion that kindness and acceptance can change lives. I’m thinking back to its foundation, and it was begun by Lady Gaga and her mother, Cynthia Germanotta, who’s been on our show before. How has the foundation changed since its inception? Lady Gaga went public about her own experience of being bullied, and you’ve now broadened that mission, I think.
MS. MARTIN: I think what’s so powerful about the foundation and our work is it’s really the intersection of our co-founders’ personal experiences with mental health and beyond and where young people are and their stories and how those two things overlap and have real trends that drive our work, and yes, our fundamental premise and belief is that if we again work directly with young people to build kinder communities, that is where positive change is going to be unlocked. And we’ve now been at it for 15 years.
I will say one of the exciting things over the span of that decade and a half has been how much the conversation around mental health and wellness has evolved. I think that’s something that always gives me a lot of hope at the international stage, at the national level, and in communities. It’s an area where folks are ready to take more action, which is super exciting.
I think for our work specifically, we are really focused on, again, building those kind communities and thinking a lot about what are the skills and knowledge young people need to have and their communities in order to move the ball forward on youth mental health and what are the component parts of young people’s communities that we need to be strengthening.
So I think you hear a lot about home, what’s going on at home, what’s going on in school. Those are obviously critical components, but we hear a ton directly from young people about the critical need for more third spaces and other places to go in their communities where they can connect with one another, connect with caring adults, and explore their interests and identities. And that is also where a lot of our work goes to and how we can build out that ecosystem of support.
MS. STEAD SELLERS: You used a word that’s so important right now. That’s “community.”
MS. MARTIN: Yes.
MS. STEAD SELLERS: And we can’t have this conversation without talking about social media and the communities that kids and adults build there. In your experience, is social media always a detriment to mental health? Are you seeing really strong caring communities growing through social media?
MS. MARTIN: Yes. I think this is where I started with that reminder that young people are not a monolith, right? They are having incredibly disparate experiences based on so many factors, and that perhaps comes through most strongly when we look at the data around digital media use and its intersection with youth well-being.
We know that there are some young people who might be engaging with digital media in some ways that can be really harmful. We also know for other young people that online community can be providing really critical support and access to resources that simply do not exist for those young people offline or that they don’t feel safe or comfortable accessing offline.
So I think our perspective, again, is let’s work with young people to have more conversations driven by a sense of curiosity about what is working for them and what isn’t working for them when it comes to digital media and then actually pushing for change so these platforms and this technology can be supportive of young people more often and is less likely to come with some of those harms.
MS. STEAD SELLERS: So young people sometimes spend hours on social media. Is there a correlation between the amount of time they spend on social media and whether it’s a benefit or detriment to them?
MS. MARTIN: Again, I think this is where there’s truly–this is one of, like, the hottest topics in the youth mental health space, and there’s an increasing amount of research. I will say a lot of that research is still definitely very correlational and not always causational, whereas–and that’s an area where I would always exercise a little bit of caution.
I would say, again, instead of thinking only about young people spending too much time in front of a screen, I would think about two things. One, what are the alternatives that we are providing for them? So do young people have, again, safe spaces to go, caring adults to interact with, peer support, and places to actually go do that? I think that’s one of the things over the past few years, especially post-COVID, that I’ve heard most consistently from the young people we work directly with that really surprised me, is they will even use the language of “third spaces,” which really, again, astounded me. That is not a term that I would have known at their age.
MS. STEAD SELLERS: Right.
MS. MARTIN: But it is something they think a lot about because those third spaces often don’t exist. So I think talking only about the digital media side or only about the screen-use side really leaves out the other side of the puzzle around what we would expect young people to be doing, where we would expect them to physically go in time and space as that alternative to screen use.
I think the other important part of the conversation is that one of the biggest predictors of a young person’s problematic use of screen time is their parents’ problematic use of screen time.
MS. STEAD SELLERS: Right.
MS. MARTIN: So I think there’s kind of–I know, right? I think there’s kind of this temptation to talk about problematic social media use or screen time as something that only young people are grappling with, and we know that’s simply not the case, right? And it’s also something that I often hear adults kind of admit off to the side, right, around like, “Oh, yeah. I also don’t feel great about my relationship with technology and the way I’m using some of these tools.”
So, again, instead of having what can often feel a little top-down, right, around like, “Oh. Well, how do we control what the young people are doing online?” I think, again, having that slightly more honest curiosity-driven conversation around what are you getting out of these tools, what aren’t you getting out of these tools, and how can we make these tools better for everybody so that we’re actually fixing the problem and not just trying to, again, control the behavior of young people who are going to grow into adults anyways and then right in front of the screen if we don’t make a change.
MS. STEAD SELLERS: So let’s talk about the other space where kids spend a lot of time, and that’s schools.
MS. MARTIN: Mm-hmm.
MS. STEAD SELLERS: What’s a truly supportive school environment, and how are schools grappling with these terrible statistics we started out with?
MS. MARTIN: Absolutely. So I think a truly supportive school, again, for us starts with a place of kindness and having that orientation towards how are we cultivating a true community of belonging, and I think if we start there, everything else gets better. And it definitely needs to include, again, caring adults who are prepared to talk about mental health and support their students. It should include mental health professionals a variety of options embedded into those goals and to, again, have as many different types of resources possible where young people are in school, and that is definitely a really important part of the puzzle. And we know that that is simply not where a lot of schools today are, and they are simply not resourced to actually do that.
A thing I reflect a lot upon is–and if folks are familiar with the great organization, DonorsChoose, where teachers can go on the platform and buy–or fundraise for supplies that they need for their classrooms, those teachers are often looking for winter coats and canned goods for food pantries, right? Like, they are worried about meeting really basic needs. So I think the temptation to then also ask schools to be the mental health infrastructure for young people is going to set us up for failure. So, again, that’s where we think about what is the ecosystem of support that we’re building that includes schools but also includes a more flourishing ecosystem of community-based organizations that might be able to work with schools. They might be completely separate, but it’s providing additional opportunities for young people to, again, have those safe spaces to go, to access caring adults, and to access peer support.
MS. STEAD SELLERS: I think there’s been a change, Rachel, in how people talk about mental health. We see people like athletes, influencers, creators openly talking about their own struggles. Do you think that has a real impact? Has it changed the stigma, or are they so distant from the real life of kids that it really doesn’t make a difference?
MS. MARTIN: Oh, no. I think we believe strongly that one of the most powerful things we can all be doing is to learn how to appropriately and safely share our own stories. That is certainly, again, something we’ve seen our co-founder did that was the real genesis of the foundation, and absolutely, I love your call-out of athletes as also I think going beyond just talking about struggle and really talking about mental wellness through a frame of how can we think about this as a strength and like a muscle we can all get better at and take real action around. So, absolutely, I think public figures but also all of us just talking more openly and honestly about mental wellness is critical to the path forward.
I would also add, one of the things we’ve seen from our research is that young people often aren’t talking about mental health with their parents, because their parents aren’t talking about it with them. So I think there’s–I share that as a reminder that, yes, there are these, like, very public figures that can drive the conversation forward, but each of us in our own lives can also be part of that change and adjusting the way that we think about mental health and wellness.
MS. STEAD SELLERS: You used the phrase “take action,” and it seems so very important to think about how to take action. Are there specific areas where you feel we are still falling short where you could see some pretty straightforward and affordable fixes?
MS. MARTIN: Yes, absolutely. And I love this question because it’s Mental Health Awareness Month. Awareness is great. Awareness is where we start.
MS. STEAD SELLERS: Right.
MS. MARTIN: But action is where we actually solve problems.
So if I could wave a magic wand and invite everyone to take action with us for Mental Health Awareness Month, I would offer up two suggestions. So first is to educate yourself around what mental health challenges might look like in practice. Sometimes it can be hard to parse, oh, oh my friend is flaking or my friend is ignoring me versus my friend is having a mental health struggle. So starting with some self-education around what mental health looks like in practice and then how to actually have that supportive conversation. And there are really wonderful resources out there that are super user friendly that can help you get started on that journey to feel more prepared to talk about mental health with the folks in your life.
So, at Born This Way, we are focused on Be There Certificate. It is totally free. It is self-paced. It is available in English, French, and Spanish, and it’s great for young people and the adults in their lives as one suggestion.
The other area that I would invite folks to think about when they are thinking about how to take action on mental health is social connection, and this is something the World Health Organization has lifted up as a really key component of public health. It’s something former U.S. Surgeon General Murthy talked a lot about in the loneliness epidemic. So we knew social connection is this incredibly basic foundational thing that drives so much about our individual and community wellness in terms of both physical health and mental health.
So I think the call to action here is to think about how you are strengthening your ties with the humans in your life, whether that includes some digital technology, whether that includes getting offline and being in community, and this is going to look totally different for every one of us, but if we start there and start by asking ourselves that question, and then also thinking through that next step of, well, if I’m having trouble with it, right, what are the changes my community might need so that we can have stronger social connection?
MS. STEAD SELLERS: Take it a little bit more deeply, if you can, into the equity issue. You know, resources are so much more available for some kids than for others, and you’ve talked about students that are really struggling to make sure people–young people are well fed. Do you see benefits that are unequally distributed in this area of mental health action?
MS. MARTIN: Absolutely, right? We know the U.S. health care system, to put it mildly, right, is very complex and often comes with some real challenges when it comes to accessing care, and I think that is probably particularly true when it comes to mental health care.
I was just in L.A. at an awesome event and, again, got to hear directly from some young people, and they were talking about the experience of trying to access a therapist, wanting that to be a part of their–how they were caring for themselves but really struggling both from a cost perspective and from a cultural competency standpoint and finding it’s not just about finding a mental health professional to work with. It’s about finding the right one for you, and that can be extraordinarily challenging for anybody, but especially for young people who are already disadvantaged and are already struggling from a resource perspective. So I think this is where we really need that big systems-level change from a workforce development perspective but also the nitty-gritty of how our health care system works.
MS. STEAD SELLERS: And, of course, in some ways, an online system could provide equity. We always see this, right, the potential for mental health to be more widely–care to be more widely distributed is there with an online system.
MS. MARTIN: I think this is where, yes, technology can–always has the potential to solve some problems and not solve others, and there’s definitely, again, just in the past few years way more movement and energy on the side of thinking through what are the technological options for expanding access to mental health care.
I think my caution there would be, as we think through what some of those tools look like, again, actually having conversations rooted in what young people want, and what young people really want is to be able to access again high-quality, culturally competent resources from a human being. So I think so much as we can use technology as an opportunity to close communication gaps, to make it easier to find that human support, there’s a lot of possibility there, but at the end of the day, young people want and to deserve human connection, including in the mental health care system.
MS. STEAD SELLERS: Rachel, I’d love it if you tell us a little more about the Generation Be There campaign and the certificate that you described just briefly earlier on.
MS. MARTIN: Absolutely. Thank you for the tee-up. So, as I mentioned before, I think this is one of the really basic things every single one of us can do to actually take action this month for Mental Health Awareness Month.
So, again, our program in partnership with a great Canadian non-profit, Jack.org, is called Be There Certificate. You can just go to BeThereCertificate.org. It takes most people about 90 minutes, and you can actually learn, again, what are the signs that somebody in my life might be struggling, how am I supposed to support them, and actually have a conversation that is going to be helpful.
Spoiler alert. It turns out a big part of it is not trying to fix, but instead just listen, which can be–sounds basic, but it’s I think often where a lot of us–
MS. STEAD SELLERS: Right.
MS. MARTIN: And then, where appropriate, bridge to other resources if that’s what your loved one needs. So it’s not turning you into the mental health care system, but it is instead recognizing you as a really vital bridge and support to other forms of care.
So for Mental Health Awareness Month, we are calling on everyone to earn their Be There Certificate and become part of Generation Be There. So Generation Be There is the campaign, and we hope everyone, again, takes action, totally free, English, French and Spanish, and it’s–if you have 90 minutes, it’s probably the easiest way you could take action right now on mental health.
MS. STEAD SELLERS: So I’m fascinated. English, French and Spanish, and are the issues different for kids and other people watching in those different languages? Is it the straight translation, or are there different issues that come up?
MS. MARTIN: Oh, wow! Really, our team is going to be so excited to get to dive into the details here.
So it was really important both for us and Jack.org that we did not just do a copy-paste translation. We did work with native speakers in both French and Spanish to come up with, again, more culturally relevant content for the program in those languages, and yes, again, we know when we talk with young people, a major theme that comes through is this desire for resources, for content, for information, for supports that meet them where they are in all ways, including their specific cultural context. So that is definitely something that we were really thoughtful about when we were building Be There Certificate.
MS. STEAD SELLERS: That’s great to hear.
Rachel, we have probably time for just one more question, and I’d love it if you could talk to us about–a little bit about what brought you to work on this topic, and what gives you most hope looking ahead?
MS. MARTIN: Oh, what a wonderful question. So I was really fortunate. I’ve always worked in sort of the mission-driven space, and then sometimes the world just aligns, and you find yourself getting to do something really meaningful and really fun. And that was certainly my journey to Born This Way Foundation.
And I would say the thing that gives me most hope–and I know it sounds a little trite, but it is truly hearing directly from young people. I think they’re–when we hear statistics around the frequency of mental health challenges, how many young people are struggling with mental health symptoms, I think what can often get lost is that young people remain incredibly hopeful. They are optimistic about their future, at nine and ten believe that they can be a meaningful part of their community and show up for other people. So I think young people themselves are a font of ideas and potential solutions and energy, and if we can more consistently partner with them, we are going to go so much faster and make so much more progress.
MS. STEAD SELLERS: Rachel, what a great note of optimism to finish on. Thank you so much for joining us today.
MS. MARTIN: Thank you so much for having me.