Let's be real: I've been stressed. Last night, after hours in traffic, it took me one and a half hours to find a parking space at home in Brooklyn, I've been sleeping badly, I skipped a workout, I feel weird about my upcoming birthday, and have an unhealthy relationship with my phone.
So maybe today was the absolute perfect one to acknowledge and think about World Mental Health Day — and to attend today's Archewell Foundation at The Shed in Hudson Yards with Prince Harry and Meghan Markle just across the room from me.
(It wasn't a massive event: Just a couple hundreds folks, and maybe a dozen print, non-broadcast journalists, were there.)
Today's 90-minute summit was glamorous, of course, what with two of the world's most talked-about expat royals in attendance (and Today's Carson Daly and U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy, too). But it was also very intense, emotional, and raw in a way I wasn't expecting.
As noted, this event specifically was called the "Parents' Summit: Mental Wellness in a Digital Age." Before the Duke and Duchess took the stage, two panels, moderated by the Foundation's Co-Executive Directors Shauna Nep and James Holt, featured parents who've tragically lost their children to suicide thanks to the toxic, sometimes lethal combination of social media and technology.
Grieving mom and dad Toney and Brandy Roberts cried as they remembered their daughter Englyn, and read aloud a private note she wrote on her phone weeks before taking her own life. Dave and Jennie DeSerio were likewise tearful as they paid tribute to their son Nathan, an "all-American kid," a football player who radiated "this caring, loving energy," according to his father.
It was hard hearing these parents, who notably were attentive and close with their sweet, talented, loving kids, with very little inkling of their offspring's secret mental health struggles and the way mobile phones and social media apps exacerbate problems and isolate them — and it was profoundly inspirational to hear how the Archewell Foundation helped these grieving families feel less alone, introducing them to one another, and fostering a community of families with a heartbreaking shared histories.
After these sober and bittersweet panels, wiping a few tears away, it was no less thrilling to see Harry and Meghan begin their own talk with Carson Daly and Vivek Murthy.
I mean, Harry and Meghan! Everyone's got an opinion on them! (Meghan is absolutely stunning, by the way, and Harry is handsome.) But the throughline between these families and Harry and Meghan's own wasn't hard to see. Not just because of what their foundation aims to do to find solutions for more responsible, humane and ethical technology and platforms — to lessen the burden of individual parents and to challenge tech companies, too — but also because of their role as parents to two very young children who haven't (we assume) demanded an ipad or an iphone or a TikTok account.
Because of all they've shared about their own battles with mental health. Because they've started a much talked-about new life in Montecito, in part to find greater happiness and health for themselves. It's a cliche, but it's true: We're all on a journey, Meg and Harry included. Happy World Mental Health Day.
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