Selena Gomez and Rare Beauty are kicking off the Your Words Matter campaign for Mental Health Awareness Month.
The singer shared on Instagram Sunday (May 1st), “Words can be a barrier to people seeking help and increase the stigma associated with mental health. Many of these words have been normalized and accepted for far too long, but it’s time we bring awareness to the words we use…because they matter.”
Infographics shared by Gomez and Rare Beauty suggest we avoid using mental health terms to describe non-clinical situations and to alter our language to focus on the person and not their disorder. For example, one should say “a person who has bipolar disorder” instead of “a bipolar person.”
Gomez added, “Just like all of you, I’m learning every day. We may slip up, and that’s okay, what’s important is that we try to do better and give ourselves compassion.”