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MTV and Celebrities Removing the “Stigma” of Mental Illness

In years past the VMA’s have focused on how little clothing the celebrities could wear or interrupt each other’s acceptance speeches, however, MTV’s 2017 VMA’s focused on the topic that in the past we barely even spoke out loud in private and that was suicide. From Logic’s Performance of ‘1-800-273-8255′ along with Alessia Cara and Khalid which included being joined on stage by 50 suicide attempt and loss survivors who all wore stood in solidarity wearing white shirts that read “You are not alone”. They were introduced by Kesha who left us with a powerful statement. “The truth is piercing. And the truth is what matters. And the truth is none of us are alone.”

 

For me, the most powerful moment was Alessia Cara performance of her hit song “Scars to Your Beautiful” when she walked on stage in an elegant ball gown, perfect hair and flawless makeup. As the song progresses she is stripped of all of the “fake” beauty to reveal that she was truly beautiful underneath the entire time. The message to everyone was you don’t know all those things to be beautiful because when it is gone that is the true beauty.

The most amazing thing that came from Sunday nights VMA’s wasn’t just the performances on stage it was the strength it gave those struggling at home to make that phone call they hadn’t been able to before. The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline who which happens to own the number that Logic’s song “1-800-273-8255” refers increased 50%. The hotline had already seen a huge increase since the release of the video which brought emotions to the surface for the 15 million viewers. MTV deserves to praised for stepping this year and tackling such a dark topic and breaking the stigma that mental illness is something to be ashamed of. Instead of they may have saved hundreds of lives of those who felt that they were alone, they weren’t worth saving or they wouldn’t be missed. They gave them hope and they literally gave their viewers a lifeline….way to go MTV.