For our Mental Health Awareness Week Takeover, Metro.co.uk’s Guest Entertainment Editor Scarlett Moffatt invited Ru Paul’s Drag Race star Cheryl Hole for a sit-down to discuss all things mental health, including support for the transgender community, emotional self-care routines and being an LGBTQ+ ally.
Here’s how they got on…
Scarlett: I’m so excited to be in conversation with the fabulous, beautiful and kind Cheryl Hole.
There are lots of positives to being a celebrity but there are also a few negatives. I was catapulted into fame so quickly so I know it can have an effect on your mental health. How important would you say it is to talk about mental health issues?
Cheryl: I think it’s one of the things that gets discussed the least among everybody because it is something everybody is up against. It’s something that everybody struggles with – even the happiest people in the world have down days. I always try my utmost on my social platforms to put out positivity and light out into the world because there’s so much negativity out there.
I’m actually quite an insecure person underneath all this and I have stresses, worries and woes and I just want people to know that it’s okay to not be okay and you are allowed to feel like a human being.
It’s just about conditioning yourself and realising that you are allowed to mute these people. I’ve got thick Essex skin, I grew up in the depths of Essex so I know how to deal with a comment or two but if you’re constantly ragging on me, bye.
Has anyone else with a public platform helped you to realise you’re not alone in dealing with mental health issues?
I’ve got to throw it back to the early 2010s when all these shows like Towie and Geordie Shore were coming out and these people were thrust into the depths of fame. It’s people like Charlotte and Holly from Geordie Shore that are really using their platform now to go this isn’t okay you can’t be talking to people like that.
I have to say the disgusting documentary that was done about Charlotte and the way she looks was pure, pure disgust and that shouldn’t have been allowed on TV because that is trolling on a huge platform.
According to stats from the charity Just Like Us, LGBT+ young people are twice as likely to experience depression, panic attacks and anxiety. Is this something that you’ve experienced?
I had a lot of bullying when I was in primary school… I had it really bad but luckily when it should have been terribly bad in senior school, I was like, ‘I’m good, I’m ready to phase it out’, because I built that thick skin. We are all just one human being just living and wanting to have an amazing life, it doesn’t matter if you’re transgender, it doesn’t matter if you’re gay, bisexual, lesbian, everything in between.
I just want people to realise that it does get better and for people to actually realise that their actions have consequences and they have repercussions – and it will come back tenfold because you put good karma out into the world, it comes back.
How important is it to have allies in the LGBT+ community?
Allies are the best thing that we can ask for because realistically there are more straight people in the world and we need people that are there to fight alongside us because, while we are great in numbers, the more that we have the better it is.
The same for the battle against the transgender community at the moment, we need people to use their platforms and their voices to come together and help our trans brothers and sisters and non-binary family and fight the cause.
I know that there’s been a lot of toxic trolling of the stars of Drag Race, what was that like and how did you deal with that when you came off the show?
I have to give such props to everybody that tunes into Drag Race because you are stepping into our world and listening. Us as queer people, we have a lot of life experience. We have a lot of stories to tell and the fact that we can do it while making you laugh and putting a smile on your face while also educating you is incredible.
But with pros always comes cons… Just because your favourite didn’t win a challenge or just because your fave didn’t do this or had an argument with somebody else doesn’t mean you need to send somebody hate because it’s ridiculous.
I experienced it myself on our season and luckily it was only for a week, but people thought that I was being fake and that I wasn’t being myself. They just took what people were saying about me and ran with it.
In that same episode I showed that I was human and I cried.
You epitomise loving yourself, but in a good way. What would you say that your emotional self-care routine is?
My self-care is just realising that you’re chosen for all these things that are given to you in life and you have to put your best foot forward. Be authentically yourself at any given second because the minute you try and emulate somebody else and somebody else’s persona or what they’re doing work-wise, it’s not authentic to you.
Also, there’s nothing wrong with not knowing who you are just yet.
How old were you when you realised that you were gay?
Let’s keep it 100. I always knew but I didn’t really know how to go about it. I had one or two girlfriends in my time but it never really was like a girlfriend, it was like a best friend that I pecked on the lips every now and then.
I always knew, so you’ve just gotta realise it’s okay to be who I am.
What would you say to men struggling with their mental health?
I want other [men] to realise that it’s okay to show your emotions, don’t feel like you’ve got to stick to this bravado of I’m a tough male.
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The rise in male suicides is quite scary and quite alarming and it could take one conversation to help that person before they do something. So I just think we need to stop having the stigma around issues with mental health because we are allowed to feel something.
Just know that there’s at least one person out there and if you don’t feel like there is, slide into my DMs and I will look out for you.
I will second that too. I feel like Cheryl Hole for prime minister!
I’m not getting political but I think I’d do a better job!
Thank you so much for being in conversation with me today, it means a lot and I think it’s really going to help a lot of people, Cheryl.
Scarlett, any time you want that pick-me-up every morning of me telling you to get out of bed and to shake your tail feather, you’ve got my number. Just drop me a Facetime, I’m there for you girl.
Thank you chick.
Watch Scarlett and Cheryl’s full conversation in the video above.
Metro.co.uk MHAW Takeover
This year, to mark Mental Health Awareness Week, Metro.co.uk has invited eight well-known mental health advocates to take over our site.
With a brilliant team that includes Alex Beresford, Russell Kane, Frankie Bridge, Anton Ferdinand, Sam Thompson, Scarlett Moffatt, Katie Piper and Joe Tracini, each of our guest editors have worked closely with us to share their own stories, and also educate, support and engage with our readers.
If you need help or advice for any mental health matter, here are just some of the organisations that were vital in helping us put together our MHAW Takeover:
- Mental Health Foundation
- Rethink Mental Illness
- Samaritans
- Mind
To contact any of the charities mentioned in the Metro.co.uk MHAW Takeover click here
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