By Karen Mizoguchi — 2021
“I can’t wait for people to laugh along with me as I attempt to make sense of some of our most pressing issues,” Jonathan Van Ness tells PEOPLE.
Read on people.com
CLEAR ALL
The reality-show star says he’s living with H.I.V., and speaks about being an addict and a sexual abuse survivor.
I’m learning that my challenge isn’t just to unlearn what my family has taught me, but to put myself in situations that would reaffirm the new lessons I was trying to replace the old ones with.
2
“Representation and visibility is given to us by larger power structures, but what do we give ourselves? I’m more interested in that. What questions are we asking ourselves to grow and heal? To challenge the ways this world constantly teaches us to hate ourselves?”
Creating spaces where the need to assimilate, conform, and belong are no longer important
Through the size of her platform, however, and her decision to choose well-being over pursuit of a Grand Slam title, Osaka offers the promise of bringing mental health awareness—both inside and outside of sports—to an entirely new level.