Lady Gaga’s personal trauma influenced the book she is penning with her mother.
The ‘Rain On Me’ hitmaker and her mum, Cynthia Germanotta, have worked together on ‘Channel Kindness’ – which is a collection of 51 stories of kindness from young people across the world – and the pair revealed the idea for the book stemmed from the singer’s experience with mental health problems at school.
Gaga told PEOPLE magazine: “I didn’t know how to stand up for myself without feeling embarrassed.”
Cynthia admitted she feels “horrible” that she wasn’t able to support her daughter, and blames generational differences for her lack of communication at the time.
She explained: “There was a shame of sharing some of this with me. And I feel horrible about that. I was raised differently, where you just have to be tough and not talk about your emotions. I didn’t always understand the difference between normal biological teenage development and a real problem.”
Gaga hopes that the book can encourage “resilience” in younger people suffering mental health problems and help develop an understanding, just as she has with her mother.
The 34-year-old singer – whose real name is Stefani Germanotta – said: “There are things that create highways from heart to heart, where we can hold compassion and empathy, where we can celebrate everybody’s resilience.
“When I was younger and had mental issues, my mom didn’t know how to communicate with me about it. We’ve found a way to channel kindness into our lives in a way that’s also healed our relationship.”
Gaga added: “I’m just really grateful that my mom holds space for me to be able to talk about how I feel. And because of that, we have a very healthy relationship that is beautiful.”
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