After Battling Anxiety All Her Life, Emma Stone Has Made It Her Mission to Shatter the Stigma
Emma Stone is a well-respected and incredibly talented actress, but that doesn't mean she's excluded from experiencing stress and, more specifically, anxiety. In fact, she's suffered from anxiety since she was a young girl.
However, Stone has taken her struggle and let something good come out of it. She's using her experience and understanding of anxiety to help kids struggling with mental health and learning disorders. She has joined the Board of Directors at the Child Mind Institute — a nonprofit organization dedicated to exactly that cause.
"I’m honored to join the board of the Child Mind Institute,” Stone said in a statement to PEOPLE. "This is a stigma-shattering organization I am deeply passionate about, and I’m looking forward to helping the Child Mind Institute continue to advance its critically important work.”
Stone has been working with organization for a while. She contributed to their #MyYoungerSelf awareness campaign in 2017, at which time she shared a personal video opening up about her battle with anxiety.
“It’s so normal, everyone experiences a version of anxiety
or worry in their lives and maybe we go through it in a different or more
intense way, or for longer periods of time, but there’s nothing wrong with
you,” Stone shared in the video. “To be
a sensitive person that cares a lot that takes kids in in a deeper way is
actually part of what makes you amazing.”
She continued, “Don’t ever feel like you’re a weirdo for it
because we’re all weirdos.”
The Child Mind Institute is very excited about the work Stone can do with them, says Institute’s president, Dr. Harold S Koplewicz.
“Emma’s courage in openly discussing her story with anxiety is inspirational,” Dr. Koplewicz said. “It offers hope to millions of kids that it is possible to overcome their own challenges and thrive.”
Emma Stone is an outstanding example of a well-respected celebrity using their platform to change the world. Go, girl.
