Our Honorees
2022 Didi Hirsch's Mental Health is Health Awareness Ambassadors
Jhené Aiko
Jhené Aiko - six-time Grammy-nominated hit maker, author and poet - has been at the forefront of a new wave of contemporary music for more than a decade. She is known for experimenting with a range of styles – from psychedelic to classic R&B to incorporating sound healing and the use of sound bowls in her music. Jhené Aiko crowned a breakthrough year in 2020 with over three billion streams worldwide and three Grammy nominations for her R&B masterpiece, Chilombo, including the prestigious ‘Album Of The Year.’ Chilombo, now certified platinum with seven gold and platinum singles, topped the charts twice and was nominated for four Billboard Music Awards, an American Music Award for Best Soul/R&B female, two Soul Train Awards, won the NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Album and was a 2021 BET Award nominee for Best Female R&B Artist. Recently, Aiko performed “America the Beautiful” in February at Super Bowl LVI and is currently building an ARK.
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MTV Entertainment Group
Building on its decades-long legacy of mental health work, MTV Entertainment Group (MTVE) launched Mental Health is Health in May 2021 to tackle the nation’s growing mental health crisis, particularly among youth and marginalized communities. The initiative underscores that mental health is part of overall health and aims to move people from awareness to action through powerful storytelling and groundbreaking tools. Last year, the campaign launched MentalHealthisHealth.us, an innovative online hub with nuanced and culturally competent resources to support viewers wherever they may be on the mental health continuum. MTV Entertainment Group also convened a cross-sector coalition of more than 1,400 nonprofits, brands, government agencies and influencers to drive our culture from awareness to action on the inaugural Mental Health Action Day. The mission continues on May 19th, 2022, the second annual Mental Health Action Day.
To expand impactful mental health storytelling across the entertainment industry, MTV Entertainment Group established the Mental Health Storytelling Coalition, a group of top mental health experts and leading entertainment companies dedicated to changing the narrative on mental health in media. In May 2021, the coalition launched the Mental Health Media Guide, a first-of-its-kind online resource with comprehensive best practices to help content creators expand positive mental health portrayals.
2022 Didi Hirsch's Youth Mental Health is Health Ambassador
Adia Fadaei
Adia Fadaei is a 19-year-old mental health and suicide prevention advocate from Los Angeles, California. Her passion for eradicating the stigma surrounding mental health and suicidality began during her work in high school at Teen Line as a hotline listener, outreach presenter, and intern. She volunteers at Didi Hirsch Suicide Prevention Center as a crisis counselor for the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline and is a full-time undergraduate student pursuing a degree in Psychology. Adia became involved with Didi Hirsch Suicide Prevention Center in July of 2021, propelled by her desire to continue serving as a crisis responder.
Adia embraces activism through individualized initiative and systemic action amongst her local and national communities. She was recently chosen to be a member of the nation's first Mental Health Youth Action Forum hosted by MTV and Viacom CBS, in coordination with the Biden-Harris administration, held at the White House in May.
Ultimately, Adia hopes to cultivate spaces and communities where individuals are empowered to express themselves authentically. She is hopeful for the country's youth in the midst of our mental health crisis, seeking further to remove the stigma of mental health and suicide and help break down barriers to access.