NOW WE'RE TALKING!

Mental health was once a taboo subject, but it’s becoming an increasingly good business—and a valuable service to those struggling silently. That’s why Selena Gomez, who has been open about her own mental health, is partnering with her mother, film and TV producer Mandy Teefey, and Daniella Pierson, founder of a favorite Gen Z newsletter, to launch a media company that changes the conversation.

- LIZ BRODY

JUST OVER A YEAR AGO, Daniella Pierson took a deep breath and clicked on a Zoom link. The 25-year-old still couldn’t quite believe who she was about to interview—much less on something as intimate as mental health. But when the other windows popped up on her screen, she relaxed. There was Mandy Teefey, the producer known for the Netflix show 13 Reasons Why wearing sweats in her bedroom. And then there was Teefey’s daughter, Selena Gomez, cozied up on her couch in a snuggly blanket.

The interview—for The Newsette, a trendy Gen Z newsletter Pierson started five years earlier in college—had been made possible by a series of fortuitous connections. And maybe because it was explicitly planned to discuss mental health, the conversation got deep fast. Teefey opened up about her ADHD and anxiety. Gomez remembered how the press jumped on her when she started speaking out about self-doubt and self-esteem: “I got so angry that my story was twisted.” Pierson was compelled to share that she suffered from OCD, something she’d never admitted publicly— in part because of stigma in the Hispanic community she camefrom. There was some kind of magic between the three women. Looking back, Gomez says, “It’s one of the moments I felt closest to my mom—us coming together to talk about something we each have experienced in our own manner. It was wonderful. And then to be understood by Daniella was even better.” None of them wanted the conversation to end, so they decided… it wouldn’t.