Lady Gaga and her mother Cynthia Germanotta were honored with the Global Changemakers Award at Children Mending Hearts’ Empathy Rocks fundraiser in Bel Air, California this weekend. The pair was honored for the work they do with Gaga’s Born This Way Foundation and during her speech, Gaga opened up about her struggles with mental illness.
“I have struggled for a long time, both being public and not public about my mental health issues or my mental illness,” she said. “But I truly believe that secrets keep you sick.”
Gaga talked about how her Born This Way Foundation seeks to promote kindness, noting, “Kindness is not an afterthought to our work. It is the driving power for everything we do. It is the lens we view every challenge through,” adding, “To me, almost every problem you can think of can be solved with kindness. At least it could be made better.”
Finally, she shared, “Kindness has a soft undertone. Sometimes people think it is weak. It is tremendously powerful. It can change the way that we view each other, the way that we view our communities and the way that we work. Even the way that we feel about ourselves, by being kinder to ourselves. We need more kindness in the world.”
