If you turned on a radio in the 1990s, you’ve probably heard her voice — and chances are you know her story. From growing up without running water or heat in the Alaskan tundra to spending her nights in her car while playing music in coffeehouses in San Diego, Jewel Kilcher’s journey to superstardom — selling more than 30 million albums worldwide and earning four Grammy Award nominations — is an inspiration to anyone chasing a dream.
Obviously, a lifetime of peaks and valleys comes with a great deal of mental struggles and emotional baggage. With an artist’s introspection, Jewel stood tall against those challenges — learning, growing, and prioritizing self-awareness along the way.
“I got discovered very young — homeless, from a rough background, and knowing that not many people become successful,” she shares. “This job really has a high mortality rate — high drug incidents, high suicide incidents. I knew I was a candidate for those things, so I had to make some pretty defining decisions really young. For me, it was being honest about my flaws. That also really protected me because authenticity became how I was able to operate in the world, which just feels better.”
Redefining Mental Health Advocacy
That quest for knowledge led Jewel to not only learn more about herself but also about an entirely new world that not many people were talking about yet: mental health. Much like she’d already been doing for years with her music and other work, she knew early on that she wanted to share her insights with those who could benefit from it most. That desire manifested itself in the Inspiring Children Foundation (ICF), the nonprofit organization she co-launched to help youth and families heal, grow, and become their best selves through a whole human approach to physical, social, emotional, and mental health.”
“When we started, mental health wasn’t even a word and mindfulness didn’t exist, so it was a very unusual thing to focus on,” she recalls. “Refining our techniques in time for what we’re facing now in the world, where there really is a mental health pandemic, feels really good. It feels important. Being a musician is very fun, but helping people enjoy living is the most fun.”
More than 25 years since launching, the ICF continues to evolve, taking a major step four years ago with the inception of the #NotAloneChallenge, a free resource for mental health care and a reminder to people that they are not alone. The annual campaign, supported publicly by everyone from Billie Eilish to Deepak Chopra, brings together thought leaders in tech, finance, music, sports, and healthcare to raise awareness around mental health.
“We encourage our kids to help with everything,” Jewel beams. “One of them brought up this idea of a social media challenge, and so the foundation began to build it out. It’s largely run by the kids, and it’s become the most successful mental health social media campaign going.”
Building a Community of Hope
With so much momentum behind the campaign, Jewel and her partners are kicking things up a notch by launching the first-ever iHeart #NotAlone Awards on November 11. Held at the Wynn Las Vegas, this landmark event will celebrate trailblazing individuals and organizations who are transforming the global mental health conversation.
“It’s really about recognizing people who’ve fought this battle and been in the trenches a long time, the pioneers in the space, as well as honoring people in pop culture that are really championing this and helping erase the stigma,” Jewel explains. “People like Olivia Rodrigo and Selena Gomez and so many people that have been really open about what they’re going through and encouraging young people to know it’s a normal part of life.”
While the high-profile nature of these awards (which will be broadcast on iHeartRadio) will undoubtedly bring more awareness to the ICF’s cause, the underlying motivation to create this awards ceremony is rooted in one of Jewel’s fundamental philosophies: the importance of gratitude.
“I think gratitude practices are well-researched and shown to work partly because of neuroplasticity and what we focus on begins to be how our brains build,” she shares. “Taking more time to notice what’s going right rather than what’s wrong begins to build those new neural pathways, but it has to be the type of gratitude that moves you — not just a mental exercise, but an emotional one where you really feel it.”
The Power of Perspective
As fans of her music, poetry, and visual art know very well, Jewel is that rare artist who is supremely talented in expressing herself in many different ways. Her multitude of projects, along with her philanthropic work and dedication to parenthood, make for a hectic schedule, giving her a better understanding of another of life’s key challenges: balance.
“I’ve started to really think about life kind of like a forest where there are many things happening and we have to really pay attention to what needs tending,” she muses. “I have a work life, I have my own life as a human and as a woman, I have my life as a mom, I have so many things as all of us do. It’s an entire ecosystem, and I’ve really learned to just dedicate myself to being deeply present. As things grow and evolve, I can respond to them appropriately.”
Finding Happiness Within
While balance and gratitude are crucial ingredients for happiness, Jewel knows all too well that one challenge could serve as one’s ultimate mental health nemesis: anxiety. After years of suffering through panic attacks, compulsive shoplifting, and other addictive behaviors, she finally realized that her Achilles’ heel could be better addressed with a simple change in perspective.
“When I quit looking at anxiety as my enemy that I had to conquer, it got better for me because our anxiety is actually trying to teach us something,” she smiles. “It’s kind of like food poisoning. If you eat something bad and feel really sick, you shouldn’t get mad at feeling sick; you should figure out how not to eat whatever it is that made you sick.”
“Anxiety is kind of that way. It means we’ve consumed something that doesn’t agree with us, and it’s only when we pay attention and look at it as an ally that we can start to realize it,” she continues. “It’s only by building a relationship with our anxiety in a way that helps us start to come into harmony with it and be able to get it to change.”
Photo by Dana Trippe
