Today is the day. Right at this very moment, our Duchess Kate has turned into a blogger and blog editor. Like many professional bloggers, she’s working from home. Unlike most professional bloggers, Kate’s home is a palace. Kate invited editors and writers from the Huffington Post UK to Kensington Palace today so they could work together to “guest edit” a day of HuffPo UK devoted to children’s mental health. If you follow @KensingtonRoyal, you’ll see that the younger royal’s Twitter feed has been taken over with at least two dozen tweets about Kate’s work. That Twitter feed also posted some photos of Kate in this Reiss blouse at the palace, hard at work. If only we could ALL look this glamorous whilst blogging. Oh, and to start her day, Kate posted this essay about the importance of mental health. Do you think she wrote this herself? Not to be a hater… but I do not believe she wrote this.
It is such a privilege to have this opportunity to be Guest Editor of the Huffington Post today, and to celebrate the amazing work being done to improve and understand the mental health of young children. Young Minds Matter, being launched today, is a new series where issues and work around the mental health of young children will be explored.
Shortly after I got married, I started working with charities helping those affected by issues such as addiction, family breakdown and vulnerable children. As was to be expected, I often heard some heart-breaking stories about lives that had been torn apart, with devastating impacts for all involved, particularly children.
What I did not expect was to see that time and time again, the issues that led people to addiction and destructive decision making seemed to almost always stem from unresolved childhood challenges. It became clear to me that many children – even those younger than five – have to deal with complex problems without the emotional resilience, language or confidence to ask for help. And it was also clear that with mental health problems still being such a taboo, many adults are often too afraid to ask for help for the children in their care.
It is time for this to change.
The mental health of our children must be seen as every bit as important as their physical health. For too long we have been embarrassed to admit when our children need emotional or psychiatric help, worried that the stigma associated with these problems would be detrimental to their futures. Research published today by the Huffington Post indicates that around a third of parents still worry that they will look like a bad mother or father if their child has a mental health problem. Parenting is hard enough without letting prejudices stop us from asking for the help we need for ourselves and our children.
Like most parents today, William and I would not hesitate to seek help for our children if they needed it. We hope to encourage George and Charlotte to speak about their feelings, and to give them the tools and sensitivity to be supportive peers to their friends as they get older. We know there is no shame in a young child struggling with their emotions or suffering from a mental illness. Of course, for some parents and carers seeking help is not so easy. When families are short of time or money it is not always easy to know where to look for help or advice. That is why we need schools and communities to play their full role to help children who are struggling in ways that are not always easy to see.
In the series of articles we have commissioned, you will be introduced to some extraordinary people and organisations. You will hear from a recently bereaved wife, confronting the reality that the depression that led to her husband’s suicide was with him as a 10-year old boy. You will hear from people who have fought back from their own serious illness to lead a change in the way we speak to children about their feelings and challenges. You will meet some of the extraordinary researchers who are asking important questions about the mental health of young people, and are getting answers that will be of real benefit to all parents and teachers.
I am so grateful to all those who have participated in this series and to all those who will contribute after today. I am also hugely grateful to all of you who will take the time to read, to watch, and to listen to these stories. Together, we have the chance to make a real difference for an entire generation of young children.
“Like most parents today, William and I would not hesitate to seek help for our children if they needed it.” I sometimes wonder about this. Because from what little we know about how the Windsors reacted following Princess Diana’s death, I really don’t think William or Harry ever, ever got any therapy or grief counseling or anything like that. I believe the Windsors are very anti-counseling, anti-talk-therapy, pro-stiff-upper-lip. And I wonder if Kate sometimes wonders if William needs counseling now to deal with his issues. And if William won’t accept help, what would he do if his children needed help?
Photos courtesy of WENN, @KensingtonRoyal Twitter.
It’s very likely that the lack of counseling after his mother’s death would make William very open to it for his own kids. I know for me, not wanting my kids to struggle like I did has affected how I approach their treatment.
Anyway, I can’t find much to criticize here. Good for Kate.
I agree. And not only should she be “not criticized”, but lauded, as this is still a topic many would rather sweep under the rug. I think it’s rather progressive of her to take it on,for as resilient as children are, they are equally vulnerable. Many who experience trauma are in a faimly where getting help is all the less likley. If not dealt with this “stuff” doesn’t go away.
I don’t think anyone would criticize her for taking on the issue. I think most people just assume other people are doing the work for her.
I don’t know about lauded — puts me in an “all hail Caesar” mode — but praised, definitely.
It was not terrible. That’s as far as I can go bluhare.
You just made me laugh, MinnFinn.
Yeah!
agree. this is a positive thing. I hope she continues to do such work.
Kudos to Kate for trumpeting this issue.
Are we only getting pictures from KP, no video? Id pay good money to hear Kate speaking to the journos.
PS, maybe she wrote the initial draft of the editorial, which was then heavily edited
Yeah I agree, it was probably written by others with her input. But (not in response to you, but others who critique for this) who cares if she didn’t write it? I don’t think the queen writes all of her stuff. Anything she puts out will be picked over like crazy so of course the professional writers will be helping her.
You are so right Kaiser. I believe that neither William or Harry has ever received any therapy for all of their issues. Their father was only interested in promoting Mrs. Parker Bowles. And as far as Kate spear heading children’s mental that is a complete joke. This woman can’t put one foot forward without her mother telling her which foot to use.
Diana refused help when Charles sought out medical care for her issues. Instead, she sought out her own healers and psychics. I don’t know if this is a Windsor issue exclusively. Maybe people at level of fame and social position are worried someone will undermine them and sell them out. Charles never struck me as anti-therapy in Diana’s case, but she seemed paranoid about taking help (although her fears seemed legitimate too).
I think its possible Willian and Harry could have gotten therapy, but given that they’re royals (or, well, just straight up world-famous) I don’t think they’re going to be open books about it.
Diana was bulimic and as far as we know she never got help for that, right? The royal family just kind of said “oh what a waste of food” not realizing that 60% of those with anorexia become bulimic as their body attempts to fight back from being deprived of food….
The only royal who actually got help with their mental health issue was one of the royals in Sweden….
In a lot of the biographies, it’s stated that Charles tried to get help but she refused. It’s always been a mystery to me as to how she actually cleared her bulimia — maybe she found the right psychologist on her own. She gave speeches about eating disorders so maybe during the course of her work she found the right professionals who could help her, which doesn’t sound impossible to me (she had to talk to them to help her prepare her for her work and her public outings). Because of the work she did in hospitals and such (so much footage shows her moving around in hospital wards), I don’t find it necessarily hard to believe that she could have found the right medical professional to treat her according to her stipulations (i.e don’t talk to the press, don’t talk to the other royals about me, or whatever else).
The royals have this thing about keeping a stiff upper lip in public. However, the public nature of their job is aligned with being advocates for other causes ; as such, they have access to (and probably do access) the best resources. Most likely, they just don’t talk about it publicly — but that’s different from not seeking out any kind of help whatsoever. I figure the Queen would have cracked up a long time ago if she wasn’t seeking out resources to cope with the stresses of her job. Either that, or she must have unmitigated mental strength deal with being a symbol of duty and the most famous woman in the world. I’m just guessing and speculating though. But since the royals have access to the top flight facilities in the world, I could see them having no qualms about using them, but obviously under the strictest of private conditions where no one finds out that they’re using those resources.
Would be interesting to know how much of this she is writing herself. Because my money is on very little…….
Does it really matter how much/ little of it “she wrote herself”? Because, really, whether or not she had assistance with it, the fact that it’s being presented as hers, with her name on it, is what’s going to bring attention to the article, and thus, mental health issues.
Good for Kate!
It doesn’t, and she probably didn’t do tons. However, I agree with you; getting the word out is what’s important.
And speaking of that, I just checked a couple of British media websites. And zip, nada, zilch on this other than the Telegraph which has something a few stories down in its royal news section. One would think that getting the word out in Britain would be the goal. So unless people actively seek out HuffPo UK, they won’t see it. I guess their twitter account has been tweeting, though. About time. They should have been doing that during Children’s Mental Health Week last week.
If I were the writer, it would probably matter to me though. She gets to take credit for someone else’s grunt work.
Yeah, it’s great she’s allowing her face and image to be used, but that’s like the bare minimum of her job. Once you get past the surface stuff of what she’s doing, I don’t think it’s necessarily wrong to question how much work she’s actually putting into the project. We question how much everybody else out there actually does. I don’t see why this need be different with her. Once she builds up long-term credibility as an advocate, people will probably stop questioning what work she does. She blew the last 5 years when she could have built up a reputation of some kind so obviously she’ll be looked at more critically right now than in a few years when she has long term projects under her belt.
BBC has been loyally reporting, bluhare!
I’m glad to read that, Sixer. Because other than Huffington Post and Twitter I didn’t see anything on it.
perplexed, the people in charge always get credit for someone else’s grunt work. It’s the way of the world. I’ve written plenty that was sent out under someone else’s signature, and I got paid to do it so I don’t complain.
True, and I’m not actually expecting the original writer to complain if he or she was fairly compensated, but like I said once she’s built up some long-term credibility I doubt people will question who is doing her work. She’s starting at a different place 5 years into her marriage than other royals have. But she did that to herself. Once she’s put in the time people will stop caring how much input she actually has (assuming she stays with the project long-term and doesn’t drop it to attend to some other venture she deems more interesting). People are judging her on the reputation she created for herself. I’d be surprised if Mark Zuckerberg actually wrote all his Facebook postings himself (although his “voice” does sound consistent so I also think it’s possible he does), but obviously we’re less likely to question what written work he puts in since we see him in all other capacities doing his job from the ground up.
It’s the way of the world for the people at the top to take credit for other people’s grunt work, but it’s also the way of the world to judge someone based on their past work ethic. Unlike the other people at the top, she doesn’t have a reputation that precedes her.
Hi Bluhare!
I am happy for her finally. I just hope she is gonna continue this project, the past can’t be changed but she can make a progress in the future. Unfortunately she is a face less a voice but people can achieve success without that too, one might hope:-)
Also it is very surprising that except for the HuffPost and Twitter, you could hardly find anything. I suppose this is how the British media react to William’s BS.
Years ago, Sharon Stone complained about certain photographers. When she stepped onto the red carpet at an event after that, not a single photographer took her picture. She learned the power of offending the legit press that day. It could be that the royal-following press has decided to show W&K a glimpse of what happens when the traditional press doesn’t report on the few royal engagements they do.
That could be part of it, nas and Anett, or it could be that the British media don’t want to give another for-profit site hits. Or a combination of the above.
It does make the point that going to the Huffington Post wasn’t the most brilliant idea for getting the word out, though. If I didn’t pay attention to what Kate does, I wouldn’t have a clue about it. Setting up a separate non-media site and allowing media to publicise it would have made much more sense to me.
I checked out the Daily Express’ (Richard palmer always tweets) site, nada, the Daily Mail has also nothing though Rebecca English had many tweets from inside all morning. I think you are perfectly right, they didn’t want to publize another site. but this is so sad but on the other hand I see their point too.
That’s just how it works in government. I’m a policy advisor in New Zealand and that’s what we do, write briefings, speeches etc for Ministers. All our work goes out under our senior executives names. They don’t have time to write it but they do query things if they don’t agree. I’m guessing it’d be the same in this case too
Sorry wrong place for comment!
???? Daily Mail has it up
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3450658/Kate-guest-edit-website-bid-raise-profile-child-mental-health-issues.html
Liberty
Haha they published it in the evening, only later updated. Which I find very funny.
Perplexed- ghost writers don’t expect or seek credit. The “ghost” means always unseen in the background, it’s part of the job. I’ve ghostwritten articles for people myself. I interviewed them to find out what they wanted to say, then got it into coherent form according to the requirements of the publication (consulting with them as questions occurred to me), then revised it according to the wishes of the person whose name would go on it. My job was to assist people to express themselves. If that included doing research for them to get more details on a topic, I did that also. It wasn’t “my” article. I just helped get the words out for them. It was their story and their project. I’m sure any writer working on Kate’s projects feels the same way. She’s the name that will get attention focused on this issue.
“We hope to encourage George and Charlotte to speak about their feelings…” Why is that a hope and not a declarative “we will encourage them?”
Because they are still a part of the royal machine and that must be honored above all else.
Somebody else probably wrote that for her.
I can’t believe she said/wrote that. Everyone knows children should be encouraged to express themselves and their spectrum of feelings. She makes it sound as if this will happen through inertia.
I agree that everyone *should* know to let, and even teach children to express themselves. This is not the reality, at ALL.
What’s worse, some repressers/stuffers/deniers of feelings really believe they have self awareness.
Silence and squashing of little human spirits happens far too often.
I did appreciate Kate’s (or the writer’s) description of teaching skills and language for feelings. I truly hope she follows through with this. And changes up her eyeliner situation.
Kate watching other people work. Yawn.
My sentiments exactly.
Can’t hate on this today. I’m just not in the mood. It’s a good cause and any attention brought to it is better than none. Except … Young Minds Matter? Really? I don’t know jack sh*t about PR and marketing but people, you couldn’t come up with a line that sounds less like Black Lives Matter? Is this the first time they’ve used it or is this old news?
Yes! I was just saying the same thing!
I’m so glad you wrote that. That was the only thing I was scrolling down to say.
That phrasing is actually rather common. I doubt very much that they were imitating an American movement.
Good for her to bringing the issue to light and getting behind it as much as she can, however she’s not actually editing and more like a workplace visit crept they came to her.
Whoever came up with this, I think it’s an amazing initiative. As someone who’s been suffering since childhood, growing up with a parent who sees it as shameful or embarrassing is truly detrimental… The stigma gets passed down and is incredibly hard to shake, even if you on a rational level know better.
Today’s children carry a ton of emotional baggage. Unfortunately, most do not receive the help they need to develop the coping skills adulthood requires. She did a fine job of expressing her views and at least she’s addressing an issue that should be openly discussed by many. Kudos to her.
Someone on her staff probably did a better job of researching (this time) and trying to avoid the massive mistakes that were made last time. There is nothing here, nothing to work with, just key words and blah blah.
She wouldn’t have written this, if she had it would have likely been a repeat of the speech she gave where she basically said that mental health issues in children only happen in poor families as they are bad parents. It was painful to listen to as it ticked every misinformed box there was. This has clearly been written by someone who has a clue.
I don’t understand what the non-trivial message is here. That kids should be encouraged to express their feelings? It’s 2015 and today that is almost the same as saying 2+2=4.
As usual the Middleton trait kicks in – build something up, create a lot of buzz and then execute it with a boat load of mediocrity and hollowness.
I was expecting a bit more content like actual discussions on the true effects of medicating children, when medication is required, when parents should step in, what kind of measures parents can take to preempt circumstantial depression in children (those that come about due to circumstances like divorce etc), what the root causes of clinical depression in children are and how they can be countered.
Instead we get : kids get depressed, make them talk. That’s all we get?
“As usual the Middleton trait kicks in – build something up, create a lot of buzz and then execute it with a boat load of mediocrity and hollowness.” >>>> I can’t truly describe the perfection of this statement. Bless you.
Come on you guys, she’s trying to do something. Maybe she should be better at it by now, but she’s doing something. We all say we want her to do something. We all know her staff does a ton of the prep work. But she’s the face, and she’s out there being a face today. I can’t get all up her nose over it. Credit where credit is due.
Yes she’s doing something but its the usual fluff and bad execution plus its not really getting the kind of coverage that having her attached to it should generate. Its tucked away on the BBC site, lost in other articles on the issue.
There is soo much more that they could have done on top of this – i.e. a Google hangout at KP with experts/the HuffPo Team/the charities, Twitter Q&A etc….
I agree that there’s more that could be done on it, Betti. Definitely. However, it’s a start and it’s *something*. As Kate appears to be someone who doesn’t get invigorated by criticism, I don’t want to add a voice to the critical choir when she does get out and do something. Maybe it will give her the impetus to get out there and do the extra if people react positively to it. I hope so. I also hope I’m not banging my head against that wall, because I do recall saying this exact same thing before. 🙂
@bluhare – “I don’t want to add a voice to the critical choir when she does get out and do something.” >>>> I think technically the work came to her 😛
I see the point. I don’t really mind her work here or if the statement was “ghostwritten”. I’ve finally come to accept that for all of the life experience that Kate *should have* had, she’s got close to none. So the expectations are set accordingly, but also objectively.
Also, The Kate PR/media machine is now starting to annoy me less and by default Kate is annoying me less. I think my real issue was that Kate was giving minimal effort and receiving maximum praise. Whether the love affair is gone or Will wore down the press (maybe both), things overall are getting less sugary which allows for more benefit of the doubt.
I don’t mean to be all critical here. Yes credit to her for finally doing something. Picking a cause and showing up. I do think that’s a step in the right direction. I am personally just shocked at how incredibly behind her team and she is on where the conversations are at, though. The conversation on mental health left the “we should talk about it” station a couple of decades ago. Even if things are not perfect on that front, I feel that the issue merits a way deeper and complex look than just talking about talking about it. You know what I mean?
I guess that I expected her people to be more up to speed on everything.
Agree with both of your points HH and Maia. I guess I hope this gives her a direction to go in rather than the “throw the darts against the wall and see what sticks” method. Maybe something will stick and she can move forward with it. I hope it doesn’t go the way of hospice care for children and addiction.
Who cares if she had help writing this? My husband and daughter review and edit everything I write and I’ve written a few published pieces. The important thing is that she’s chosen to bring more attention to an important cause. Good for her.
My guess is that William and Harry were not offered any counseling for fear that someday, somehow the content of those sessions would leak out to the public.
I should have scrolled down. I agree with your first paragraph. Not sure about the second. Any therapist who would leak contents of a session would have their license stripped.
@OtherRenee, I agree. Bluhare, I don’t know if this is what the OP meant or not, but I would be less concerned about the actual therapist/psychiatrist leaking anything. However, we’ve seen the disgusting lengths that the British press will go to – things such as hacking phones and using and/or publishing the contents of personal voicemails – and they could have been concerned about a breach like that.
Or again, not the doctor, but an unscrupulous (or just plain desperate, financially speaking) member of the doctor’s staff with access to charts or files — even if the sessions were held at KP to for maximum privacy — unable to turn down the amount of $$ that might have been offered to divulge info. That is more where my mind went, since as you said, any professional would face their license being revoked and a ruined reputation. (Additionally, anyone picked to work with W+H in the first place would have been vetted so completely.)
It is beyond sad that people stoop so low that these concerns could have outweighed those poor young boys getting help. Obviously this is all just speculation, but I wouldn’t be shocked to learn that Charles and HM *did* think they would benefit from therapy, but were too scared of what damaging info about the BRF could somehow leak out.
The earlier mental and emotional health issues are caught and treated in children, the better chance they have of growing into healthy, normal adults. I have several friends in their 50s and 60s who had horrendous upbringings and still bear the scars today because they didn’t get help. Back in the day psychiatry was frowned upon as a weakling’s way of dealing with problems and mental health issues were routinely swept under the carpet.
So I’m giving her a pass and hoping she’ll run with it.
I think her statement implies that parents and/or poverty cause mental health issues? We’ve been through this before on CB – mental health issues happen at all socioeconomic levels. Parents don’t cause schizophrenia or eating disorders or bipolar or depression (though these issues can often run in families). Yes, environment matters, but ALL people with those issues need this support… even people with perfect, rich parents.
It is wrong to call this a mental health campaign and it should be called Community outreach.
AHHHHH
I don’t see her statement as pertaining only to underprivileged kids, but I think the focus is that they, in particular, tend to get dropped through the cracks, especially if they’re not getting responsible parenting or don’t have the financial resources to get help. Regarding the nature vs. nurture issue, there are a number of mental/emotional issues that can be triggered by environment – abusive trauma in childhood can cause terrible psychological issues later in life, and difficulty with interpersonal relationships and psychiatric disorders can result. Depression, panic and anxiety attacks, substance abuse, PTSD and eating disorders are all outcomes that can be caused by traumatic events in childhood – not in every case – but damaged kids of a lower socio-economic bracket are most at risk of going untreated.
^ if thats the case then she needs to articulate that and she didn’t, particularly with the speech she wrote herself. Plus if she is only focusing on one part of childrens mental health then that needs to be stated as well, they way its being sold to us is that she’s crusading for it in ALL its forms but all she keeps talking about its having good parents and being able to talk to people about how you feel. How does that work with kids who have autism, ADHD etc…?
@MP, I can’t get past that either. As @Jaded pointed out, that might not be what they are *intending* to say, but that is sure how it comes across to me.
As @Betti said, someone on her vast team should have been able to word her statements in a way that doesn’t make this suggestion. I cannot BELIEVE that with an entire staff devoted just to her, no one has picked up on this and adjusted the message accordingly 🙄🙄
I want to like her, but Jesus Christ, she makes it very hard.
“Young Minds Matter” – I have mixed feelings about this title. On one hand it’s clear just how global “black lives matter” has gotten. On the other hand, I see so many people co-opting the name. It’s almost like a saying “Well I don’t know if black lives do matter, but that’s one hell of a name. Let’s take it.”
#AllMindsMatter HAHAHAHA JK!!!!
The hash tag is very misleading as could easily refer to children’s education and it doesn’t really reflect the subject matter. Something like #childrensEmotionsMatter or something similar would have been better.
How about leaving the whole concept behind the BLM hashtag alone and starting over? The theme doesn’t fit the hashtag. It’s dumb. I’m sorry. It is.
I googled it and the #younglivesmatter has been around since early 2013. Post-dates #blm but isn’t brand new either. And it does encompass much more than children’s mental health so maybe it wasn’t the best choice to post under if you are looking at a very specific issue to discuss.
OK. This is a great cause, I love the uniqueness of the idea.
Aside from that — they really do photoshop the released pictures, right?
Also don’t want to b too negative with her on this but it’s Children’s Mental Health WEEK and this is the only event she’s done to promote a cause that she’s ‘energised’ about. #justsaying
Why is she wearing a see-through blouse and a mini-skirt to sit in a circle with kids? Isn’t this the time for a nice trouser suit?
If that’s a mini-skirt, then I’ve been downright obscene my entire life. I regularly wear that length with tights to my office job, as do the other women in my office.
There’s plenty to criticize with Kate, but calling that a mini-skirt and a see-through blouse is stretching so hard you could lose a limb.
Sheer stripes on the front so we are treated to her camisole underneath. Similar to when she wore the bright white bra under another ugly black Temperly dress. To me, that’s tacky.
Skirt 4-5 inches above the knee when she’s standing, goes up much higher when she’s sitting down with the kids. It doesn’t matter whether or not you’d wear it to your job. Her job has a dress code with skirts to the knee or lower. Overall, not a good choice of outfit for her job but that is nothing new. Another $1000 spent on clothes that don’t work for the job.
That’s just silly to me. Silly, silly, silliness. The children are fine. Let’s not go all Helen Lovejoy here.
You’re welcome to call it silly, but her job dress code is real and exists for a reason. Sitting down in a group of kids and not having your skirt ride thigh-high being one of those reasons.
Re; the clothes, I am so tired of commentors saying – I wear mini skirts to work. Hullloooo you are not a Duchess and future Queen consort. You are jo normal.
Because she knew there’d be grown men there.
+1 And Kate’s blouse with neck ruffle and pintucks SO reminds me of Diana’s circa 1982 fashion. Coincidence?
Paragraph #2 “Shortly after I got married, I started working with charities…”
She just put us on notice. She did not like it when many of us criticized her back in December for using the phrase ‘in my work with charity’ in a speech. She HAS done tons of charity work dangnubbit!
Remember when many of us complained about that? Her people must be reading public comments which really really surprises me.
@MinnFinn, really? Or were you saying that in more of a facetious tone? (Hard to tell when typed!) I would think gauging public reaction by reading public comments are literally part of their job descriptions. Of course, if they listened more, one would hope her actions would be FAR different than simply changing that wording to push back at the criticism of “in my work…” (which was, admittedly, RIDICULOUS and quite a misstep by whoever wrote and/or approved it 🙄).
Anyway, I’m off on a tangent here (!), but now that I think about it more, I’m thinking maybe you were being sarcastic and not surprised at all that #poorjason pores over comment sections to see how his latest nonsense is being received.
Charlotte15 – Not facetious. Because Palace PR is really awful at modern PR, I thought it was possible and maybe even likely that her staff were not monitoring social media chatter about her. Paragraph #2 is the first thing I’ve seen that removed all doubt.
The DM about the cost of her clothes for this work event:
£375 Dolce & Gabbana skirt
£120 high-neck ‘Vinnie’ shirt by Reiss
That’s not including her shoes and jewelry.
So to walk from one room of her KP apartment to another to ‘work,’ it cost at least £495 in clothes plus however much else for the rest of the things she’s wearing. So… it’s still costing in personal attire at least £1000 to work and as said in other posts, it was about a 20 minute sit-down at that table or about half an hour in total.
Two media sites reported: ‘The Duchess spent around half an hour in the editorial conference meeting…’
What an oblivious woman. She sounds like [popular media representations of] Marie Antoinette right before the French Revolution. Or any corrupt, revolt-sparking public figure, really. (Case in point: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viktor_Yanukovych#Personal_excesses)
I’ll praise Kate for being excellent in her job as a cipher. Expectations have been met, and applauded.
That poor kid. He looks like a hostage of vicious children rights well wishers.
Black Lives Matter slogan is big in the US. However the movement is mostly American and foreign media does report on it but I don’t think it dominates the news cycle like it does abroad. Seeing as how it’s Huff Post UK I don’t think the audience it targets will get the slogans mixed up.
I agree but to me the problem is that the people who are in charge of her PR should realize the similarities. WHY you would even risk it is beyond me. The slogan isn’t even that great (I mean this one, not the BLM one) so this is the best they could do? For a cause she’s so energized about, it’s a bit lazy.
I wish they had chosen another campaign slogan. Black LIves Matter is not like the “Got Milk” slogan where appropriating it for any old PR campaign is fine and oftentimes kindacute. BLM is about law enforcement violence, killings and using other forms of horrible unnecessary force against POC.
Childrens’ mental health is very important so much so that they need their own unique headline.
“Seeing as how it’s Huff Post UK I don’t think the audience it targets will get the slogans mixed up.” >>>> It’s not about getting the slogan’s mixed up. It’s about letting movements have their own space, particularly when a movement involves marginalized groups who are often already silenced.
“What I did not expect was to see that time and time again, the issues that led people to addiction and destructive decision making seemed to almost always stem from unresolved childhood challenges.”
Really??? Because most recent research shows that most addictions come from co-occurring mental health issues, and that you can’t blame Mummy and Daddy for these unresolved childhood challenges. Again with the perfect childhood fairy tale – if only Mummy and Daddy were good enough, there would be very few addictions and poor decision making.
Yes, trauma as a child can certainly lead to this, as can genetics and inherited tendencies such as anxiety, depression, ADD, ADHD. If she is going to speak on this, I wish she (her team, really) would speak on it knowledgeably, and not out of their butts. Because this type of statement is going to do even more harm and cause more stigma.
This is what you get when people with no experience and little interest take on something to look good – a huge mess.
Its too large and complicated an issue for our special snowflake to really understand. That misleading statement is just the most recent in a line of one’s she’s made on the subject. As time and time again I have seen people who came from stable, and shock middle class families, who had loving/attentive parents who still descended into drug/alcohol addiction and made bad decisions after another. It turned out that these people had undiagnosed medical conditions – ADHD, bipolar, dissociative disorders etc.. – things that are NOT related to how Mummy and Daddy treated you. The main issue being that these conditions were not recognised or even identifiable when they were children.
She keeps pushing this narrative that it’s only the parents/childhood environments’ fault – that is just one part of a much larger picture.
I tweeted on it, that she really needs to do some research because she is speaking irresponsibly. She is doing more harm than good with statements like the one she made. She is just do Duh.
+ 1 million
Very good point Jib. Resolving childhood challenges alone will certainly not save someone with a strong genetic predisposition for addiction, schizophrenia, or other mental health conditions with a heavy biological basis.
I am glad Kate is taking on a meaningful issue, however, I concur that because this is an extremely complex issue Kate or her handlers should be treading more carefully and seeking informed advisors.
I would include genetic tendencies as a “childhood challenge” myself. So what she said was not necessarily only relating to environment or parenting.
Jib – I agree. Kate is focusing on a particular area of mental wellbeing in childhood. This is a worthy cause. But it is being presented as the face of childhood mental ill health in totality, which is dangerous.
Thankfully, the BBC’s coverage of mental health week is much better – showing bipolar disorder manifesting in teens from prosperous families (and others), post partum psychosis manifesting in high achieving professional women, etc etc.
Kate has come close to pathologising poverty with some of the stuff she has said.
@Jib I am afraid that once I started ranting I would never stop, so I will restrain myself and all I will say is: I hope #poorjason reads your tweet.
@ JIB-
Fascinating discussion today. I’m 56 yo, suffer from severe depression, severe ADD, Type 2 diabetes–had a narcissistic mother and a stepfather who molested me when I was 13. When I told my mom what he was doing, she confronted him that night. He denied it, but the very next day he killed himself.
I’m so sorry, I didn’t start out meaning to vomit my life story…i sincerely want to THANK YOU and all of the other CB’s for not only realizing the fucking COMPLEXITY of child mental health, but for repeatedly and passionately posting your ideas, concerns, fear of future consequences of public figures only getting very small parts of the jigsaw puzzle.
I haven’t been able to work in almost 2.5 years and naturally feel down and am hard on myself (“WHY CAN’T I JUST FUCKING GET OUT OF BED?” or “PLEASE, JUST BRUSH YOUR DAMN TEETH ONCE!”) but after reading your posts, i remember, yet again, that not just ONE thing brought me to where I am today. I hope I’m not trying to make excuses, I love my life! Wonderful hubby of 32+ years, wonderful kitty of 24+ years, great friends, family, and extremely lucky to be in amazing therapy. I do realize how blessed I am, and I’m working hard to keep it this way.
Soooo sorry for the rambling…i just want to tell you that you helped me feel more compassionate towards myself, it’s not all MY fault, or my parents fault, or any other single thing. I am who I am, and I’m right where I want (!) to be 🙌
She can’t do anything right, ever. Can she?
I don’t think that. I just think that if you are going to talk about mental health, you need to be well versed in the latest research and not continue to blame childhood and, by extension, parents. She is adding to the stigma that parents would feel. How hard is it to do some research, or even talk to some people who are on the cutting edge of addiction and mental health research? She has the world at her fingertips and continues to make stupid statement after stupid statement on this. It’s irresponsible.
Yeah, Something tells me kate is just going to trot out this rhetoric time and time again without ever getting into the nitty gritty of her cause. We will just hear sound bites beased around this speach, re-hashed in different ways.
She got the baby thing right. Heir and a spare and those kids are g-adorable (gorgeous and adorable).
And did everybody hear what Sophie Winkleman had to say? Prince George is already superior to all other toddlers in the realm. He was speaking much earlier than all of them.
@Wentworth, sometimes I do agree with you that she gets an undeserved amount of vitriol on CB, but in this case I have to agree with @Jib- the message she’s putting out verges on dangerous, it is so inaccurate.
And considering she has a FULL TIME TEAM of staff working for her, one would think that even if Kate herself is oblivious, they would be able to get the nuances correct, as Sixer, Betti, and others have pointed out.
Well she stayed for a half hour apparently, so I guess she was ‘keen’ to bring this issue to the forefront.
Only half an hour? Not even 45 minutes? She lives at KP so there’s no commuting for this event and she can’t even do one hour? Even if she needed to go to the bathroom at other events, she’d have no worries when it’s at her KP apartment. Smh…
Seriously? Where did you see that? I’m going to have to take back everything I said if that’s the case!
It was definitely only a half hour because that was what was stated even on Kate’s fan sites.
They tried to make it sound like the bulk of the work had been done ahead of time. The “newsroom” at KP was a photo op, nothing more 😒
From what i can gather from press reports, she was part of a 20min meeting where she discussed with the articles she commissioned with the HuffPo team, then had that little chit chat with the children and then various photo ops with people at computers etc.. I’d say it was about 45mins (her time limit apparently).
The truth hurts.
This. How you can’t hang on a couple of hours minimum and really learn and observe….
So, sorry. I can only applaud with one finger. I have worked on charity projects and made the time to gather info and take part. And so can she.
Somebody just declared on the Duchess Kate blog that Kate deserves a Nobel Prize for her work. I feel like a part of me just died. Or at least a few brain cells died just reading those sentences.
@Maia: surely you jest. Did someone actually say that?!? I can’t even take it. 😣
I also think Kate’s take is rather one-sided. Not all problems adults face are rooted in unresolved childhood issues. I have seen firsthand how extreme financial stress can wreck parents and the entire family. While thechildren will benefit from counseling, there will be no significant improvement unless the parents circumstances change.
I wish I could believe no one has edited Kate’s essay and that the photos looked less staged – look everyone! – see me, your duchess at work!
I read the blog they put up, and I think she did a good job. She invited articles from the charities she worked with, so they’re getting some attention, which is great. Well done Kate.
Charles actually got Diana help for her bulimia and mental issues but she refused treatment. Like most sick people she thought that she knew better than the professionals. She was also so paranoid she couldn’t understand that they were actually trying to help.
I just find it hard to take Kate’s part in this seriously.
Firstly, she oversimplifies it. Just talk out your emotions, get some therapy, and that’s the cure. Oh OK.
Secondly, she and her husband are, imo, so obviously in need of major counseling themselves and they seem to be the most resistant to it and have instead built their lives to make the most of being a permanent man-child and woman-child. William actually goes the extra mile just to do the opposite of what people tell or suggest to him to do. So it’s a case of ‘Do as I say, not as I do.’ Not the best or even good examples of using professional therapy to fix or improve oneself.
Anyways, it’s always good to destigmatize mental illness and get society and government to start dealing with it in a more beneficial manner.
LOLZ Anne, I was waiting for somebody to comment on their combined chronic need for a mental health intervention. Kate and her co-dependancy for starters. Her eating disorder next. Willies manchild /mummie issues. I could go on. Maybe bloody clairol could get some too for her controlling possibilty narsisstic personalty disorder. James for his sexual identity issues – constant beard girlfriends. And lets not forget pippa’s extreme THIRST. Group booking anyone. Might need Dr Phil on board. Bring out the big guns.
anne_000, we think alike! good post.
That blouse looks like something my mother would have made me wear to church. When I was 5. In 1987.
How does she manage to look like a grandmother yet also a child? And all the while managing to be inappropriate with both? Too short, too sheer, too much! This particular outfit isn’t terrible but I’m still taking points off.
I’ll read comment later but two lines in and this heavily edited. I’ve written a lot of public drama things and this is an edited version down to the “is,” and “buts.”
So, who wants to bet she took a helicopter to and from KP for this? *raises hand*
I can’t get over the comments here. She’s doing something very worthwhile and it’s getting lots of publicity. I give her lots of credit for choosing such an important and desperate cause.
@Maggie, I think many (if not most!) of us here give her credit for taking on this particular, worthy cause. It is the execution of it that is the problem. She could end up doing more harm than good with her outdated, stereotypical views and messages.
The cause isn’t the issue.
I thought mental health was about more than emotional issues; that the brain itself–it’s chemistry, its neurological structure–is linked to behavior, thought, & emotion.
Well if you only had a happy childhood with parents who loved you enough, you’d never have any problems (paraphrasing broadly from her damaging first speech on this).
@Hazel, you would be correct! It is literally astounding to me that no one on her team has recognized this and adjusted accordingly.
Anne, excellent post, spot on!