“I remember being really young and having shortness of breath and going to my mom and telling her that,” Kendall Jenner recalls in Vogue’s new four-part video series, Open Minded. “In hindsight, now I know that that was obviously anxiety.” Speaking candidly, the 25-year-old model and mogul is pulling back the curtain on her own experience with anxiety, which affects more than 40 million adults nationwide and is the most common mental health concern in the U.S.—one that’s only grown during the COVID-19 pandemic.
In the first episode, Jenner sits down with Dr. Ramani Durvasula to discuss social anxiety and address everything from how to open up about one’s struggles with the disorder to how to manage and quell symptoms, which can include everything from insomnia to a racing heart and shortness of breath. “One of the most important things, I think, is to destigmatize all mental health issues, particularly anxiety, because a lot of people think they’re alone with it,” the Los Angeles–based clinical psychologist tells Jenner. “Anxiety is like a magnifying glass. It magnifies only the bad things—every little ping, every little this…. In essence, what we’re trying to do is take that magnifying glass and put it to being a regular lens.”
Of course, such honesty does not come without its own set of fears for Jenner, but after years in the limelight, the pro takes it in stride: “There [are] going to be those people that say, ‘What does she have to worry about? What does she have to be anxious about?’ And I’ll never sit here and say I’m not fortunate…[but] I’m still a human being at the end of the day. And no matter what someone has or doesn’t have, it doesn’t mean they don’t have real-life feelings and emotions.”
Above, watch Kendall Jenner in the first installment of Open Minded.
Directed by: Posy Dixon
DP: Kevin Hayden
Camera Operators: Yuya Kudo, Zachary Rockwood and Sonja Tsypin
Key Grip/Gaffer: Kurtis Myers
Sound: Chris Omae
Edited by: Victoria Mortati and Daniel Poler
Color: Carlos Flores, Forager
Sound: Paul Vitolins and Nick Cipriano, Bang
Post Production: Marco Glinbizzi
Series Title Montage: Chris Beckman
Title Design: Jason Duzansky
Visual and Audio Design: Natalia Stuyk
Art Director, Set Design: Alexis Johnson
Decorator: Christine DiStefano
Styling: Danielle Levi
Hair: Amanda Capomaccio
Makeup: Mary Phillips
Tailor: Bebe Aguirre
Executive Producer: Marina Cukeric
Producers: Naomi Nishi, NY and Jace Davis, LA
Line Producers: Jen Santos and Jessica Schier
Production Manager: Trina DeMattei
Location Manager: Joe Burk
Production Coordinators: Peter Brunette and Andressa Pelachi
Associate Producers: Rachel Cantor, Stephanie D’agostini and Arielle Neblett
Production Assistant: Josh Crowe
COVID Supervisor: Carla Nora
Vogue: Robert Semmer, VP Digital Video Programming and Development; Mark Guiducci, Creative Editorial Director; Sergio Kletnoy, Entertainment Director.
Special Thanks To:
Derek Blasberg
Maya Amolis
Dr. Ramani Durvasula
Ashleah Gonzales
Christy Welder
Jessica Edwards
Barb Solish
Katrina Gay
Dr. Ken Duckworth
YouTube Health
Medcircle
NAMI The National Alliance on Mental Illness, is the nation's largest grassroots mental health organization dedicated to building better lives for the millions of Americans affected by mental illness.