How celebrities have turned mental health into their new business strategy

Fifteen or ten years ago, when a famous person armed a platform to monetize his name and fame, he used to take advantage of something concrete, (things) and something diffuse (lifestyle).Who better the play went to Gwyneth Paltrow, who practically left the cinema to focus on Goop, the space in which he promotes an almost perfect mixture of self -care, well -being, cashmere and spirituality shirts for people who collect expensive quartz.Jessica Alba focused her brand, honest, in household products, beauty and cosmetics clean and obtained benefits last year of more than 300 million dollars.Reese Witherspoon, which has a more important role in audiovisual production, does not forget the commercial side, which explodes with its medium price clothing line Draper James.

If they, or their equivalents, now begin their empires, would undoubtedly approach the theme that has unifested for a few years all pop discourse, from Ariana Grande to Kate Middleton and Billie Eillish to Dwayne Johnson, the rock: the health problemsmental.A few days ago, Selena Gomez announced that Wondermind launched, a platform that will come into operation from February and for which she has associated with her mother, producer Mandy Teefey, responsible for series as for 13 reasons, and with businesswoman DaniellaPearson.The idea is to offer something like User Friendly mental therapy.The information that already exists about the project affects that working the mood resembles the physical state and that whoever wants will find practical exercises to do every day, while podcasts and other contents around the issue.The actress of only murders in the building already talked about the anxiety and depression she suffered in 2016, when she had to leave a tour of those problems, which he blamed to have suffered Lupus.Last year he told Miley Cyrus in his podcast that after years of therapy and treatment was diagnosed as a bipolar.

Although in some media there has been talk of Wondermind vaguely as an “initiative” or even as an NGO, the beta version of the web already admits advertisers and in an interview that the three members give in the Entrepreneur magazine it is very clear that what they throwIt is a pure and hard business.There we talk about how the nascent company can handle to differentiate itself in a “startup market such as mental health, crowded with wellness applications and therapy platforms”.Teefey even argues that Wondermind's value is precisely in being a company: “I think that more product is equal to ecosystem.We already have great brands expressing their interest in being our partners.We are excited to build a lucrative business.Because the best way to make sure society pays attention to a subject is to make money with him.This is how true movements are made ".

Some of the many businesses that Harry Windsor and Meghan Markle are undertaking since they left the protective umbrella of the British royal house also have to do with mental health. El príncipe fue nombrado “Chief Impact Officer” de BetterUp, una empresa de San Francisco que une a empresas con servicios de coaching y terapia y que utilizan compañías como Warner Media o el gigante telefónico AT&T.Betterup is valued since its last financing round, last February, in more than one hundred billion dollars (the "Billion" in English), so it is officially considered a "unicorn".Harry's remuneration for tasks such as “promoting mental fitness and expanding the list of coaches and customers” was not made public but everyone understands that it must be up to advertising that won its signing.In the message published by the grandson of Isabel II when he made it public used a language very similar to that of Selena Gomez in Wondermind, one that combines exercise and therefore the self -active with the results: “I firmly believe that prioritizing our mental fitness helpsUnlock the potential and the opportunity we never knew we had inside ".It is the idea in which apps such as Headspace abound, which was recently acquired by the Blackstone Buitre Fund, giving rise to a giant in the meditation market, which leave the responsibility of mental health in the patient himself.If one is not in optimal mental conditions, it has not worked enough.

He is not the only negotiated around the mental health that the family carries in the hands.Harry also works on a series of programs on the subject with Oprah Winfrey for Apple TV and his wife, Meghan Markle, also has a book that is part of the couple's millionaire contract with Penguin Random House that will address well -being and health issuesmental.In his famous interview with Winfrey, Markle acknowledged that during his stage at the Royal House he had come to house suicidal thoughts.Meanwhile, the Olympic swimmer Michael Phelps, who has talked about his problems with depression and alcoholism, starred in a campaign for Talkspace, an application to do online therapy.

For each famous that clearly makes a box talking about their mental disorders, there is another that makes a non -profit dissemination and prevention task.Many other celebrities channel their work around mental disorders through foundations, such as the Born This Way Foundation by Lady Gaga, or do a rather discreet job, such as Emma Stone with the Child Mind Institute organization, dedicated to mental health of the kids.Ariana Grande donated a million dollars among his fans so that therapy and taraji p could be paid.Hinson is a patron saint of a foundation that bears his father's name to prevent suicide among the African -American population.The most cynical and distrustful may think that with that solidarity work they also obtain image revenues, now that it is important that a character of the public sphere is shown as someone vulnerable.It can also be replicated that talking about mental disorders still has its cost, which is still lacking work to normalize disorders and make visible therapy and that these foundations and initiatives end up benefiting anonymous people.

Other cases remain in an intermediate blurred, on the border between promotion and activism, and raise more uncomfortable questions.If someone like Justin Bieber makes a whole series of content for YouTube around this issue, can you talk about benefit or do you just intend to help?Demi Lovato, who suffered an overdose in 2018, has focused her current work, her way of being a famous person, almost exclusively in talking about her mental problems, producing content such as Dancing With the Demons docuserie.

It was perhaps inevitable that, after a few years in which the entertainment industry has focused almost exclusively on that message, eliminating stigma around mental disorders, and when mental health care is generating billonary business opportunities, those two worlds were going to meet."Dedicating mental health is the last scam of celebrities," denounced a recent article in The Nation magazine.Based on the case of the Dukes of Sussex, he pointed out how in their migration from the United Kingdom, a country with universal social security, to the United States, who does not have it, the couple “has capitalized on the intention of the American media to amplify their strugglewithout scrutiny to focus its activism as something raw and brave ”.“That type of myth creation - the article is, is antithetic to the work of psychotherapy, which is an intensely private experience.Sussex's performance is calculated to attract retinas, clicks and consumption.They are well accompanied, now that the hegemony of social networks has made the appearance of living well a sport with spectators ”.

Already before they left the United Kingdom, and when the couple worked on mental health problems hand in hand with the Cambridge, William and Kate, at the Heads Together Foundation, several British columnists had indicated the paradoxes and contradictions of this new generationof Royals Woke, who point out existing problems in society, but they never get to investigate what causes them because that would imply doing pure and hard politics and would make their own position of inherited privilege even more evident.

The philosopher Eudald splugates also addresses this issue in his recent book You are not yourself (Paidos), where he dedicates a section to talk about Sadfishing, the practice of “publishing emotional posts with the aim of awakening compassion in the public”.No clearer example by the way, that the last selfies of Bella Hadid crying.“Sadfishing - espluga appears - is a usual practice among cinema, sports and influencers stars: while allowing themthat did not have access before ".

In the end, almost every week there is some proof that selling mental therapy and well -being is much more delicate for celebrities than selling underwear or pans, as they did before.On November 5, ten people died at the Astroworld Festival.The reaction of rapper Travis Scott, who was the one who acted and organizes the event and could face very serious criminal consequences for what happened, was to launch a statement saying that he would pay the costs of the funerals of the victims and that offered free therapy to all theAssistants through a strategic association with Betterhelp, the online therapy company that had already starred in controversies before for its doubtful association with YouTubers and influencers.The statement between the company and the rapper had all the strategic launch appearance, a life partner.Some ironic tweets summed up the situation well: "If you saw your friends die in Astroworld, Travis Scott gives you a free therapy month with @betterhelp".