Taylor Swift is the latest young celebrity to speak out on the importance of mental health as she took a moment to have a heart-to-heart with her audience during her Minneapolis concert on Saturday as part of her Reputation Stadium Tour. During her powerful speech, Swift pleaded with the crowd to “just try to be kind to yourself,” as reported by Billboard .
Taylor Swift is not blind when it comes to the everyday battles people all over the world struggle with mentally, including that of self-love. On day two of her two-day stint at the Minneapolis U.S. Bank Stadium, Swift, 28, adhered to requests from fans that she sing some of her older songs that haven’t been heard in years.
She surprised her audience by singing, “Tied Together With A Smile,” which is from her self-titled debut album, released over a decade ago. Before she got into her performance, Swift seized the opportunity to share some of the important things she’s learned about life as a way of introducing the song itself.
“One thing I have noticed in my life is you can never judge what somebody else is going through, even if they seem like they have it all together, they seem like, how can they ever have any problems? Somebody is maybe really beautiful or seems like they have it all together, maybe they have a life that you’re really envious of,” she began.
It turns out, the track has significant meaning to it, as Swift revealed back in 2007 that it was about her friend from high school, whom she described as being “this beauty queen, pageant princess — a gorgeous, popular girl” that “every guy wanted to be with” and “every girl wanted to be her”.
“I’ve learned that appearances aren’t everything. Just because somebody looks happy doesn’t mean they are. Just because somebody looks healthy doesn’t mean they are,” she went on to say.
So what exactly drove the “Gorgeous” singer to write a song about this girl who seemingly had it all?
“I wrote that song the day I found out she had an eating disorder,” she said at the time.
Swift ended her speech by advising concertgoers to “just try to be kind to yourself” and that even though they might feel like they’re the only ones going through something that might seem impossible to overcome, they’re not alone.
“There’s so much pressure on everyone these days to have it all together, to have a perfect body, a perfect life, to know exactly where they want to go with their life. I think the stress and the pressure of not being able to say that they’re hurting has really taken a toll on a lot of people. So I’m just asking you, just try to be kind to yourself. Just know that there are so many people that are going through the exact same thing that you might be going through, whatever it is.”
More and more celebrities have been stepping up and choosing to use their celebrity status to raise awareness of the mental health issues people endure every day, especially when it comes to substance and alcohol abuse and body dysphoria.
Aside from Swift, other young celebrities who have been outspoken about the issue include Lili Reinhart, Ariana Grande, and Demi Lovato.
