“LOVE THAT STORY” AUTHOR JONATHAN VAN NESS

BORN THIS WAY FOUNDATION CO-FOUNDER CYNTHIA GERMANOTTA

AIR DATE: Tuesday, April 26, 2022

MUST INCLUDE TUNE IN

VIDEOS:

Jonathan Van Ness Urges Everyone to Invest in the Relationship with Your Hairdresser 

https://youtu.be/A6No58CFkco

Drew: What is a good piece of advice out there that we could all learn from Jonathan Van Ness about hair.

Jonathan: …Really this is how to invest in your relationship with your hair dresser and yourself. And I also talk a lot about the smoke and mirrors that the beauty industry creates because so often when someone brings in a photo and they’re like, ‘I want my hair to look like this.’ It’s like, ‘Honey, there is like thousands of dollars of extensions on that hair. There is also thousands of dollars of Photoshop, color correction, so many highlights. Their hair doesn’t even look like that.’ So kind of level setting where do we get these beauty expectations from and realizing even what we are aspiring to be isn’t even real. So let’s celebrate where we are.

Cynthia Germanotta Describes How She Helped Her Daughter Lady Gaga Navigate Her Mental Health

https://youtu.be/-Dmf5TQE6f0

Drew: Is there anything that you can think of that she would say about how she sort of matriculated that pain of the bullying and the way that she felt into channeling it into something that was more empowering and useful to her?

Cynthia: I think she would say. We talk a lot at the foundation about the impact that kindness has on your health. Not only kindness to self, she talks about kindness on the inside and kindness on the outside. And you have to be kind on the inside to yourself first before you can help, it’s hard.

Drew: Look away. I am working on it. Do you have any advice for me?

Cynthia: Baby steps. Love yourself. It’s okay to look in the mirror and tell yourself that you love you. 50% of mental health issues develop by the age of 14. And that’s about when it started happening for my daughter.  But it’s not uncommon for it to go undiagnosed for 10 years and I missed the warning signs. I didn’t know what they were. And you know we talk to our girls, our children, our boys too about the birds and the bees. We have that talk. I call, we have to add the flowers and the trees about their mental health. And having that conversation with them in the same breath as the birds and the bees. And if there is one thing that I could leave with you or anybody is communication. And there’s times they don’t want it but communication to a fault I would say…I used to tell my girls I may not like everything that you tell me but I would rather know and be able to help you.