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Entertainer & activist Amber Riley and model Choyce Brown join Youth Licensed Clinical Therapist Jaynay Johnson for a candid discussion about how young Black women are managing their mental health. Ta
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00:00hello and welcome to checking in on our girls managing mental health i'm teen therapist school
00:13consultant entrepreneur author and speaker janae johnson and i had a concierge style therapy
00:20practice for teenagers called teen talk and this evening i'm here with two talented young ladies
00:27who are joining us all to talk about how young black women today are managing their mental health
00:33our first panelist is grammy nominated an award-winning singer actress and theater performer
00:39a proud consummate as she rose to success playing mercedes jones on ryan murphy's critically acclaimed
00:47series glee where she quickly became regarded as the show's best vocalist and this triple threat
00:54will release her ep riley on october the 2nd so please join me in welcoming miss amber riley
01:01hi how are you i'm good thank you for having me my pleasure i see we're matching with our pink
01:09lipstick love that i'm so excited to also introduce our second panelist for this evening
01:19um and she is a model and a content creator who is taking the world by storm having embarked on a
01:26life of modeling acting and online public influence and her desire to just be a good person and influence
01:33everyone on her platform to be a good person um i am so excited to introduce um miss choice
01:41so first of all thank you both so much for joining me on this conversation
01:55with me i'm a therapist it's probably obvious i want to talk and talk about mental health so
02:00we are here to do just that um so we are finally getting to a place where you know the effects of
02:07mental health are being talked about more openly and freely we see it online people are you know
02:14healing self-healing using quotes going to see therapists but we don't often talk about the root
02:19causes you know in terms of why these things kind of happen why these things you know arise um especially
02:26when it comes to our young ladies we definitely skip a lot so when it comes to that so when you think
02:31about some of these conversations that you have with your friends and family in your group chats um
02:36and on your social media timelines you know some what are some common and not so common issues that
02:42you think young women are dealing with today like you know anxiety depression and addiction and like
02:48what leads to that so riley i'm going to start with you answering that question um i think anxiety
02:56seriously is something that everyone deals with in general but it seems like um it's on the rise and
03:02people are starting to recognize that those feelings that they have that that it is anxiety i think it
03:09has a lot to do with our social climate i think it has a lot to do with our social economic climate the
03:15pandemic um us constantly uh always being on uh social media and just downloading all the information
03:26instant information that you have to roll over into your brain i i seriously think that it is um if you
03:33don't have the right coping mechanisms if you don't have you know the right foundation if you don't have
03:39the right focus it can definitely affect your your mental state absolutely and there's a lot of conversation
03:47right now around you know black women not feeling supported and hurt yeah everybody's like yes or
03:56verbally emotionally you know under attack it's like we're talking we're talking we're talking and
04:01it's almost like we're talking into the abyss because it's like no one's responding accordingly
04:06appropriately um and when you have like a lot of attacks such as like police brutality and domestic
04:12violence incidents um you know attacks on our body on our appearance like don't wear this don't wear
04:18that you know i don't know about that hair texture um so many different things that come into play with
04:23that um it can really feel like an emotional attack and like we're constantly under attack so
04:29my next question is how do we not feeling protected or heard uh when it comes to these issues
04:36weighs on our mental health and choice i'm gonna go to you for that one um i think it weighs in so
04:42many different ways i think sometimes it takes time for you to realize it's like something has happened
04:48to you because when you get accustomed to things in life and it happens over and over and over you
04:53kind of get used to it and then it takes kind of like a breakthrough for you to finally realize like
04:58i'm broken all of this time of you know being rejected and not being seen heard or loved um so i think
05:04it just takes a huge toll and makes you very insecure and who you are it gives you many like
05:10identity issues as well just not knowing who you are who you're supposed to be um so yeah i think
05:16it gives you a lot of things that you have to struggle and work with yeah choice like you're so right
05:22about that you kind of just really begin to struggle with identity issues and then it becomes
05:26well how do i use my voice because we also see that when black women speak up you know they they're
05:33punished and so both of these amazing ladies have found success in careers that place you in the
05:40public eye everyone's always watching um as much hate as there is online there seems to be a lot of
05:49support um so i just kind of wanted to know in tough or stressful times do you find yourself just
05:57connecting more on social media and just stop needing to be offline a little bit more um you know
06:04so amber all right let's get your input on that first and then choice i want to hear how you feel about
06:10that oh man i mean yeah i i have to take breaks i have to take breaks and it's so it's so crazy because
06:18um social media has become like this necessary evil like we we need to use it because that's where the world is
06:26if you want to get the word out whether that's a social issue that you want to talk about or just
06:32a career you know a career move that you're making you know we have we have now become entrepreneurs
06:40via social media we can control our audience we can control our own narratives now we can we have a
06:48direct connection to um fans we have a direct connection to followers uh so sometimes that can be
06:55overwhelming because then the people that don't know you think that they do know you and then
07:00people want to define you and people want to that's the main one of the main reasons that i've changed
07:05my name like let me let me show you exactly who i am but i absolutely positively have to take social media
07:14people break not even just social media people break yes i'm so glad you said that people breaks
07:23social media and all break so choice what about you um i agree this is all like a little bit new for me
07:31because this is like something that's recently been happening um for me and my family just everything this
07:37is all new so i'm definitely learning like when i need to take breaks when i need to stop when i need
07:43to go um i'm getting the hang of things definitely but breaks are super necessary like essential one
07:51thing um tell my girls or a lot of clients that i work with is even just curating your feed can be
07:59helpful so sometimes you do have to take an audit of who you're following so that if you do end up
08:04scrolling at least you can feel good about yourself and you know you learn something as you're scrolling
08:09and so even if you are there auditing what you're looking at paying attention to and taking a break
08:15every once in a while in closing um can you each share the one thing that you've done has kept you
08:22centered or brings you back to your center uh during this quarantine period and you know such unpredictable
08:29times um and so choice i'll start with you and then i'll go ahead and go ahead and go ahead
08:34um i think i love to paint i have all these paintings in my room um but painting is like
08:41something that's just so peaceful for me and then also like just like what i do like my work
08:45um it's really fun for me it's something i really love to do so whenever i'm working it's never like a
08:50drag or anything i always love to take pictures to do art that's my art so yeah i think over the time
08:57as long as i just keep busy with things that i love to do then i'm always feeling centered
09:01i love that thank you riley um kind of the same it's it's interesting to me because during the
09:11pandemic when everything started everybody turned to the arts whether it was like going online and
09:17hearing new artists or people picking up new hobbies like that's where everyone turned and so for
09:23myself it was writing i started writing more in my journal writing songs writing poems
09:28um and meditation those are two things that kind of keep me keep me centered you're so right about
09:36that riley i think you kind of ran right to the arts it was like i'm gonna write i'm going paint i used
09:41to draw i used to do this and i loved it because i do feel we have made the idea of being developed
09:50mean we can't have fun and we shouldn't do fun things and things that just bring us joy or things
09:56that you know we don't turn our hobbies into businesses like we really let go of that idea
10:01of just doing things because it feels good because we like it and we because we enjoy the process so
10:06i'm actually happy people ran back to some of these different things to kind of keep themselves grounded
10:11and my hope is that everyone sticks with it you know as things kind of get to a new normal because
10:17i think if anything we're realizing just how much we do have to love on ourselves focus on ourselves
10:22do the things that keep us happy and not always be so busy and on the go um and to really connect
10:29so you know ladies i wish we had more time i feel like we could have really gotten deep in here but
10:34that's okay that you both were able to join us um so before we go please let everyone know where they
10:43can find you how they can stay connected with you although we were just talking about social media
10:48um you know don't connect with them when when they can connect let us know you first and then choice
10:56your follow-up um you can find me on instagram and twitter under ms ms amber p riley also my first ep
11:06is available october 2nd self-titled riley i have two singles that are out right now a moment and um big
11:15girl energy bge uh so yeah friday october 2nd my debut ep is out so everybody go and cop that
11:28that's so good congrats thank you you can find me on any social media at choice brown c-h-o-y-c-e um
11:36instagram twitter tiktok all of that it's the same thing thank you both so much for your time here today
11:44i'd like to close by sharing a few resources to help everyone that's watching or the young women in
11:50your lives better manage their mental health and this should be popping up on your screen right now
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