Selena Gomez launches company to continue her advocacy for mental health | Nightline

I started to have a relationship with myself, and that's the best part. Like, I've probably been the happiest I've ever been. Selena Gomez at the top of her game. Fresh off a Grammy nomination for her Latin pop album Revelación. For a decade, she's dominated music charts with hits like Lose You to Love Me. And just last week, wrapping up the second season of her hit show Only Murders in the Building. Hey, who's cooler than me? Everyone. It may look effortless, but Selena has been candid about the struggles she's faced as a child star. Growing up in the spotlight has definitely taught me so much. There are moments that I completely skipped out on, and the moment you get this word famous, you kind of stay in that age range. Her mental health crisis often on full display, revealing to Miley Cyrus on Instagram just last year of her bipolar diagnosis. When I go to know more information, it actually helps me. It doesn't scare me once I know it. You've talked, Selena, about you now live with bipolar, and you don't suffer from it as much anymore. How did you go about learning how to live with bipolar as opposed to suffering from it? Well, I do the necessary things, you know. I see a therapist, and I have tons of workbooks like a nerd. I write music. I try to take what's going on and turn it into something beautiful. In the best way that I can. Now, Selena is hoping to channel her mental health battles into something beautiful, teaming up with her own mother, Mandy Teefee, and 26-year-old entrepreneur, Daniela Pearson. All three have dealt with their own mental health issues and are trying to break the stigma and provide resources to subscribers free of charge. Together, they're launching a multimedia company, Wondermind. Featuring everything from newsletters to podcasts and conversations with celebrities. I know that your twin goals are to de-stigmatize and democratize. What does that mean to you? I think it means how the public perceives what mental illness and mental health actually is. Why do we have to have negative connotations along with something that is just as important about your health as anything else? If you work on your body every day and that's so important, why isn't your mental health just as important? But we're also amplifying these incredible professionals that do charge thousands of dollars an hour and being able to bring their information to the masses, to the people who can't afford that. So that's really the democratizing part. The three bonded during the pandemic when Daniela, featured on Forbes 30 Under 30, reached out to Selena and Mandy for an interview on mental health. For her popular newsletter, The Newsette. I got on the Zoom with them during the pandemic. They were so open and honest and vulnerable and real with me that they ended up being the fourth and fifth people that I ever told in my entire life that I had OCD. Daniela had been suffering in silence with OCD for years, afraid to speak out because of the stigma. Before that moment, I literally would have rather died, and I'm not saying that in a sarcastic way. I would have rather not been on this earth than anybody know I had OCD. You can imagine how lonely that feels. That epidemic of loneliness only amplified by the pandemic. A survey in June 2020 finding that 25% of adults aged 18 to 24 thought about suicide. Mandy says that she too struggled from an early age with thoughts of self-harm. I was seven the first time I attempted suicide. Not coming from a community that actually would discuss that, I felt a little isolated. Her own pain driving Mandy to help launch the hit Netflix show 13 Reasons Why, which she executive produced alongside her daughter. I'm about to tell you the story of my life. The controversial drama came under fire for depictions of teenage suicide, but they say it shined a light into the darkness. I knew it was a needed story, and I knew that these kids were just begging for this conversation to happen. It was during the making of the series that you discovered your own mental health issues. I was diagnosed originally with bipolar, but then they ran all the proper testing. I had ADHD with trauma. The Wonder Mind team is hoping to share the tips and tricks they've learned from their own therapy sessions, seemingly small exercises known as dialectical behavior therapy, or DBT. Whenever you are feeling overwhelmed or upset with someone, you blow up a balloon, and you draw their face on it, and you pop it, and then it just kind of releases that a little bit. My mom and I've seen it happen. These things are really silly, and I want people to know that I understand that. But there is power when you put truth in it. I love the rare reminders that I've read about with your sticky notes. It can be quotes. It can be something that I need to validate my feelings with, maybe something along the lines of like, today you are enough. I'll put it visually somewhere, and I'll keep it there until that's in my mind. Those reminders, a much needed anchor for the star, who famously quit Instagram when she was the most followed person on the planet. The overwhelming scrutiny, something she still avoids by having her team post her social media. I haven't been on the internet in four and a half years. And so what does that do to detox your life? It has changed my life completely. I am happier. I am more present. Studies repeatedly link the extended use of social media with mental health problems like anxiety and depression. As a mom watching your daughter struggle through this mental health episode, what advice do you give to other moms? Just do the work alongside the child. Like, that's going to make me cry. Learn how to speak to them the way that they're needing to be spoken to. Love them the way they need to be loved. Selena, now a grown-up, continues to grow in front of our eyes. How do you feel as you're entering your almost 30th birthday as a young woman? I couldn't be more thrilled to just step into this chapter alone, independently. Strong. Confidently. Openly. That's all I really want, you know? I'm excited. And Wondermind officially launches its newsletter today.