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Megan Thee Stallion is speaking out about mental health and reminding her fans that feeling down is normal — no matter how unbreakable you feel you need to be.

“I’ve always been told I gotta be strong,” Megan explains in an Instagram video announcing her collaboration with Seize the Awkward, a campaign that encourages young adults to have mental health conversations with their friends. “Thick-skinned, stiff upper lip, tough as nails,” she went on.

Portraying that kind of outward strength, though, can be exhausting. “To be everything for everybody, dr yasmin kahn it wears on you,” Megan explains, as the walls around in her in the video begin to show fractures. “Black don’t crack, they say. But it can. I can. We all can.”

The message is especially poignant as it relates to Black women, who deal with unfair expectations due to the “strong Black woman” stereotype. “The use of the label implies that Black women have no choice but to be fearless, ambitious, and hardworking,” one 2022 study notes, adding that the stereotype can ultimately “mask the unfair burden placed on Black women.” At the same time, that expectation of strength may dissuade Black women for reaching out for help, because their resilience is simply assumed. When it comes to seeking care for mental health issues, for example, Black women are half as likely to reach out for help when compared to white women, according to a report from the Psychiatric Times.

A post shared by Megan Thee Stallion (@theestallion)

That context makes it even more impactful to see Black women celebrities like Megan Thee Stallion opening up about their mental health and encouraging fans to do the same. “Y’all, it’s OK to not be OK,” she states in the video. “Reach out to a friend if you see them going through it. No matter who you are, being vulnerable is what makes us whole.”

In a separate video on Seize the Awkward‘s website, Megan explains that she got involved with the campaign because she relates to its message of talking to friends about mental health. “I genuinely know what it feels like where I don’t want to open up and I don’t want to talk about it,” she explains. and “… To feel like, ‘I can’t talk to anybody about this. I don’t want anybody to know.’”