Singer, actress, and producer Selena Gomez is teaming up with her mother and The Newsette founder Daniella Pierson for a new media platform that puts the spotlight on mental health.
WonderMind, which launches in February 2022, will challenge the stigma surrounding mental health conversations and offer educational resources, daily exercises such as journaling, tips from licensed therapists, and podcast interviews with mental health professionals and celebrities.
“Mental health is something that is very close to my heart,” wrote Gomez in an announcement on Instagram. “It is so important to have places where people can come together and understand that they’re not alone in their mental fitness journey.”
In a welcome video published to the new platform’s website, Gomez, her mother Mandy Teefey, and Pierson talked about their own journeys with mental health and how they plan on creating a “mental fitness ecosystem” based on story sharing and mind strengthening tools.
“I struggled with my own mental health disorder, OCD, since I was a child. And it can feel lonely, and you can feel helpless,” said Pierson. “I’m just excited that we’re going to be creating a community where everybody can come together and we can become more educated on what mental health is, hear other people’s stories, and then help people with our physical tools.”
The WonderMind website outlines its commitment to mental health as extending the work done between therapy sessions. The platform will launch physical products aimed at fostering daily mental fitness as well as offer insights from licensed therapists such as Minaa B. and John Kim.
Teefey and Gomez, producers of the Netflix series 13 Reasons Why, are no strangers to opening up conversations around mental health. The two joined Pierson for an interview with The Newsette in 2020, a popular newsletter she started in college, and shared their personal experiences with mental health. Teefey spoke candidly about being misdiagnosed with bipolar disorder, which she found out over 20 years later to be ADHD, and how mental health is something rarely talked about in her community.
Gomez, who lives with bipolar disorder, has spoken up over the years on the challenges she has faced while growing up in the spotlight. In an article published by CNN, Gomez wrote about “unrealistic expectations for women in our society” and how social media has taken its own toll on her mindset. Gomez called herself “a strong advocate” for therapy and detoxes from social media.
In April this year, the Only Murders in the Building star launched the Mental Health 101 education campaign, through her makeup brand Rare Beauty, aimed at raising awareness and funding mental health services for underserved communities. The brand has also incorporated The Rare Impact fund, which launched in 2020, and plans on raising $100 million over the next 10 years and advocates for more mental health resources and education in schools.
Gomez hosted Global Citizen’s Vax Live: The Concert to Reunite the Worldin May, where she called for vaccine equity, increased support for dose sharing from world leaders and businesses, and encouraged people to get vaccinated to protect themselves and everyone around them.
Through Instagram Live discussions with Vice President Kamala Harris and fellow former Disney Channel star Miley Cyrus, Gomez has advocated for accessibility to mental health resources and confronting fear through acceptance and openness. And now with WonderMind, Gomez hopes that others can find their way on their own journeys with mental health.
“If anything, people just take away the fact that we’re there for them,” said Gomez in the welcome video. “I can’t wait to see people share their stories.”
If you want to talk to someone or are experiencing suicidal thoughts, text the Crisis Text Line at 741-741 or call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255. You can find international resources here.