Text Your Problems, Chiara Urges Teens

By SHANNYCE LASHLEY

Mayor de Blasio’s daughter Chiara  laid bare her own mental health and addiction difficulties at the launch Tuesday of a program designed to encourage young people to text about their own adolescent problems rather than keep them bottled up inside.

At the launch of the program, NYC Teen Text, held at Millennium Brooklyn High School, Chiara, 20, revealed how she felt growing up in a family she described as being perfect on the outside but still she felt depressed on the inside.

“As long as I can remember, I felt like something was wrong with me,” she said. “I said the wrong things, did the wrong things, had the wrong friends, wore the wrong clothes, wrong hair, wrong body. I wasn’t pretty enough, wasn’t cool enough and the list goes on.”

Chiara, who attends college in California, drew appreciative reactions from the students, who acknowledged that they’d rather text than talk.

The pilot project has been launched in ten schools in the city by the de Blasio administration. It offers an emotional support system for teens suffering with mental health and the growing pains of teenage years. The anonymous outlet is a place where teens can speak freely to mental health professionals and not be judged by their actions.

“Just like other parts of the body, sometimes our brain needs treatment,” said Chiara’s mother, Chirlane McCray. “No one can function well without good mental and physical health. We need to eliminate the barriers that are preventing our teenagers from getting the help they need.”

If this project is successful, officials said they would provide it in every school in the city.