On September 22nd, 2020, Lady Gaga’s Born This Way Foundation released their new book called Channel Kindness: Stories of Kindness and Community. Filled with Gaga’s stories of kindness, as well as those of several young kindness activists, the book is meant to motivate and inspire readers to channel kindness into even the smallest of their daily acts.
Born This Way Foundation
Gaga and her mother, Cynthia Germanotta, founded the Born This Way Foundation in 2012 with a mission of supporting young adults through their struggles with mental health “to create a kinder and braver world.”
Motivated by her own mental health journey, Gaga wanted to find a way to destigmatize mental health by increasing the conversation around these issues. Having struggled to speak about her own experience growing up, Gaga wanted to create a platform where these discussions were normalized and people’s emotions and experiences were validated.
Channel Kindness
Channel Kindness is a project that was created through Gaga’s Born This Way Foundation. Serving as a sort of “digital platform,” Channel Kindness offers “a safe space for young people to tell their stories of kindness, resilience, and community.”
The recently released Channel Kindness book highlights these kindness stories in a more tangible way. While the Channel Kindness digital community is still thriving, the book serves to amplify their voices, giving readers something they can hold in their hands and carry with them as a reminder of all the ways they can make a difference each day.
According to Gaga, “Channel Kindness is the embodiment of the everyday acts of kindness that uplift communities and instill a sense of hope in each of us… If these stories inspire one act of kindness, then we’ve accomplished our mission. We can’t do it alone, and here is a book that shows we aren’t.”
While the Channel Kindness book is aimed primarily towards celebrating the stories of young people, Gaga offers personal insight and experiences throughout the book as well, encouraging and empowering readers to get excited about getting active and kind, wherever they may be.
Gaga’s work with Channel Kindness is timely and necessary, always. However, the 2020 mental health crisis has brought with it a certain urgency, highlighting emotional struggles that only kindness, in all its forms, can solve. As stated on Gaga’s Instagram, “It is more important than ever that we channel kindness towards each other, for each other, and with each other in a vision for a kinder and braver world.”
