The hard work of destigmatizing mental health struggles like depression, anxiety, and OCD can occasionally fall in the hands of public figures who choose to be upfront about their own experiences. And in 2025, actor Lili Reinhart and musician Lizzy McAlpine are leading that charge. At Hearst Magazines’ second annual Women’s Health lab in New York City, the artists sat down with Cosmopolitan‘s editor-in-chief Willa Bennett to explain why they are committed to keeping their fans aware it’s not all happy thoughts all the time, even as famous faces.
“I was diagnosed with depression and anxiety when I was 12, so I’ve been living with this for half my life,” Lili said. “Although I don’t look at this as part of my identity, it’s a part of my story. So when I started doing interviews, it felt organic to talk about my experience with my mental health. Not that there weren’t other people in the industry talking about their mental health, but I was 19 at the time on this big show, and I think people were surprised I could have the capacity to feel depression. So I was constantly encouraged to keep talking about it.”
Lizzy said while she is forthcoming about her struggles, setting up boundaries online has also been a protective measure for maintaining her own mental wellness.
“I used to post a lot more on social media, and I was open with my life. It kind of got to a point where I felt like people felt they had a say in what I was doing, and that was affecting me. So I’ve really scaled back the amount I share because I need to make sure my mental health stays sane.”
Lili adheres to similar boundary-setting practices: “There’s a weird balance between wanting to be open about your mental health but also understanding how badly social media can affect your mental health. I try to be open and honest about when I’m in a rut.”
Both Lizzy and Lili detailed how they see their artistic work as a release. Lizzy—who is starring in the Tony-nominated musical Floyd Collins—said the experience is “healing [her] inner child” and she finds working on her own music to be therapeutic. “I have to write songs or I’ll be depressed all the time. Without music, I don’t know where I would be.”
As for Lili, she finds acting to be a helpful gateway, offering her a sense of ease in being emotional on set. “Sometimes a camera in my face gives me permission in a weird way. I know that whatever emotion I’m presenting on film will be captured, and people will maybe be able to see themselves in it. So it’s almost permission to let myself feel to the fullest extent.”
When Willa asked about the advice they’d offer their younger selves, Lizzy said she’d focus on the strength of sitting with emotions. “It’s okay to feel everything you’re feeling. I feel like for a while, and still sometimes, if I’m having a feeling I don’t want to have, I’m like, ‘Okay, need to push that away.’ But if you don’t let it move through you then it will never go away completely. I wish someone had told me that.”
Lili fully agreed. “I viewed depression as a dragon that needed to be defeated rather than something I needed to learn to have compassion for. I’ve always been on a quest to feel better—to try medication and therapy and Reiki and all these different energetic healing works—and it’s not for this end goal of ‘I need to be this to be happy.’ It’s sort of like ‘how can I manage this and how can I live with this thing that’s a part of me and my existence?’”
“If I [went] towards it with compassion and empathy, maybe it would have made my younger self a little bit more accepting when I was 12, 13, and not really understanding why I felt the way I felt.”
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