Blackpink’s Rosé opened up about her struggles with loneliness in the public eye in a conversation with Dr. Jill Biden.
On Friday, the K-pop star appeared at Apple’s Cupertino, Calif. campus to discuss mental health. The event was organized by the first lady and the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC), as a part of the organization’s weekend in the Bay Area.
Introducing the singer before her speech, Biden described her “as a young woman of incredible talent and courage. A global superstar who is using her platform as a force for good in the world.”
“She’s also an outspoken advocate for mental health, and has greatly shared her story in the hopes of helping others,” Biden added.
Rosé (real name Roseanne Park) shared that despite her immense success in the music industry, even she struggles with feelings of isolation.
“In all honestly, my journey has not always been the easiest for me. There have been valleys and trenches, and I have definitely faced some difficult trials along the way,” Rosé said.
“These trials later became lessons for me to learn that in order to create and share positivity through my music, my mental health needs to be taken care of as a matter of priority, and prioritizing my mental health has helped me incredibly to complete my recent world tour and meet my fans all over the world.”
The Blackpink member added that she hopes fans can understand that even those in the public eye face mental health challenges, and she wished someday that people could be more accepting of the challenges that stars face.
“I think that would be very great, for everybody who works under the public eye,” she said. “I do feel like some of the things I do is just never enough, and no matter how hard I work on something, there’s always gonna be somebody who has their own opinion or who enjoy taking control of the narrative. And so, that comes to me as a sense of loneliness.”
The star also urged her audience to treat their mental health the same way they treat physical health.
“Just as we feed ourselves for better health and fitness, mental health can only be maintained equally — if not more intentionally — as our physical well being,” she said.
“I hope we can always remind ourselves no matter what the world may otherwise tell us that our self worth is not determined by where we are now but is to be determined by what keeps us close to the ground,” she finished.