Demi Lovato reflects on becoming a better advocate and anxiety during the pandemic
Demi Lovato has penned a letter for Vogue in which she opens about mental health during the pandemic and becoming a better advocate for the Black Lives Matter movement.
The singer wrote that at first, the uncertainty surrounding the pandemic caused her anxiety to "skyrocket." But by taking some cues from her fiancé, Max Ehrich, she used the time to take up healthy habits like meditating and yoga.
Lovato shared that she also used the time to reflect on her own advocacy work.
"Having so much downtime during quarantine has given me the space to realize there's so much more I could be doing to help other people," she wrote in the letter. "I'm in the 'at risk' category for Covid-19 because of my asthma and other health issues, so I wasn't able to attend any of the Black Lives Matter protests. But there were things I was able to do from home, just from using my platform."
She admitted that while at first she felt "self-conscious" about speaking out via social media, after educating herself, she realized "that to be a good ally, you need to be willing to protect people at all costs."
She concluded her letter by calling 2020 "a year of growth" and encouraging people to remain hopeful.
"Moving forward, I want to put my energy into my music and my advocacy work," she wrote. "I want to continue to strive to be a better person. I want to inspire people in many different ways to do the same. Above all, I want to leave the world a better place than when I got here."
Lovato's personal reflection on her own advocacy work comes after she marked her 28th birthday last month with a plea for justice for Breonna Taylor.
Read the singer's letter for Vogue in full here.
