I am so grateful to you for the ways you are bringing kindness and support to yourself and your community. Every kind word, resource shared, and check-in with a friend is building the kinder, braver world we all aspire to. For World Mental Health Day, I encourage you to learn the skills to be there (and if you’ve already taken the course, please invite a friend to join you!) at BeThereCertificate.org.

At Born This Way Foundation, we’ve teamed up with Cotton On and the Cotton On Foundation to reach community members like you and young people globally with this free online mental health course. Click here to learn more about our partnership.

Since the launch of the Be There Certificate in 2022, more than 50,000 people have now completed the course – double the population of Wheeling in my home state of West Virginia! That is an average of over 56 people a day, since our launch, who have learned how to recognize when someone might be struggling with their mental health, understand their role in supporting that person, and connect them to the help they need and deserve.

I’m so inspired by this global movement of tens of thousands of people who are getting informed while normalizing conversations about mental health and expanding awareness of and access to resources. We each have the power to play our part in building a kinder, braver world, and that starts with how we’re checking in on ourselves and our loved ones.

For this World Mental Health Day and beyond, I encourage you to keep learning about how you can kindly, safely, and knowledgeably support your own and your loved ones’ mental health. I pledge to do the same. I pledge to Be There.