“I wish that I had a person that was releasing music or openly advocating for mental health, to [help me] realize that there’s a lot of people that go through it.”
Before making the move to Los Angeles to pursue a singing career, Nessa Barrett, as a 17-year-old girl living in New Jersey, rose to fame on TikTok. But even after acquiring 26 million followers on social media and widespread recognition for her music, Barrett is determined to keep her platform authentic as she continues to open up about living with borderline personality disorder (BPD) and the many other things that make her human.
“I wish that I had a person that was releasing music or openly advocating for mental health, to [help me] realize that there’s a lot of people that go through it,” the 19-year-old told Seventeen magazine. “If I saw an artist that was successful and they still dealt with mental health, then I would have known it was okay for me as well.”
While Barrett’s Sept. 2021 debut EP included songs with lyrics describing her struggles with mental illness — including anxiety and depression — the music isn’t the first outlet that she’s had for connecting with fans in a vulnerable way. In fact, she explained that her growing prominence on social media encouraged her to open up…