Emma Stone joins the Board of Directors at the Child Mind Institute

Emma Stone isn't just a great, Golden Globe-winning actress. What she's been doing for a better conversation around mental health truly is important, and she has now taken it one step further by joining the Board of Directors at the Child Mind Institute.

I can't imagine how excited the children treated at Child Mind Institute must be, knowing that she is now a big part of the place that's been making their lives better. Some of them might be too young to really know her as an actress but I bet the parents must be pretty happy, too!

For those of you who haven't heard of it, the Child Mind Institute is a pretty great American nonprofit dedicated to improving children's and young adults' mental health. It provides online ressources for families and young people (as well as educators), actual treatment at no less than 5 clinical centers, and does or finances a lot of research with a focus on neurobiology and mental health in young people (whose brains are still developing). Their online ressources are also available in Spanish.

If you're interested in mental health, have a loved one who suffers from mental illness or a learning disorder, or live with a disorder yourself, I can only recommend subscribing to their newsletter: it's great and you can choose the topics you wish to be informed about.

Emma Stone had already gotten involved with the Child Mind Institute in 2017 for their stigma-shattering, awareness-raising campaign #MyYoungerSelf, where she was asked what she would like to tell the younger version of herself. In this timeless video, she gets real about struggling with anxiety, all while telling kids watching her "You are normal. You are so normal, it's crazy". And that's amazing, because she does not make mental illness a rare thing, or people living with a mental disorder outcasts, but she also does not make mental illness something to dismiss with a "We all worry, get over yourself" phrase. She knows it's hard to live with a mental disorder but the message she's trying to get through is one of honest positivity: it's gonna get better. You're gonna be okay.

Other celebrities participated in the campaign, such as Mayim Bialik, Michael Phelps, Lena Dunham, Mark Ronson, Lindsey Stirling, Mark Ruffalo... They all had something useful and meaningful to add to the conversation.

Good job, Emma. Keep it up and thank you so much.