Adwoa Aboah is a trailblazer. Having soared to public recognition thanks to a career on the catwalk and fashion campaigns across the globe, and now as an actor, the 31-year-old British star has always used her public platform to help others struggling or simply seeking their own safe space online, which can sometimes be challenging.
After all, she knows from experience that achieving global success has not made her exempt from struggling with mental health. It’s this awareness that has made Adwoa long understand that while she has come from a “privileged background” (her parents are both big players in the fashion industry) with resources at her fingertips, others haven’t been as fortunate. Cue Gurls Talk, a community-led non-profit organisation which she founded in 2015, and has since proved to be a warm, welcoming place for young women to have the same options as she has had to optimise their well-being best.
And if that hasn’t been enough, Adwoa has expertly combined her modelling career with her love of mental health advocacy as a Jo Malone London ambassador, a luxury lifestyle and beauty brand who have long worked to champion the wellbeing of their community with numerous charitable projects. Here, Adwoa Aboah talks exclusively to GLAMOUR about what she has achieved when it comes to dispelling the stigma surrounding mental health, as well as how her identity and coining of the word empowerment have changed for her over the years.
Your Gurls Talk podcast is a safe space for young people to discuss their mental health. Did you have a similar podcast when you were growing up to talk about your feelings?
Not at all, which is one of the many reasons why I decided to start Gurls Talk back in 2015. I’ve always been in search of a community – one that I could share freely and would have the chance to hear someone speak from lived experience in a space where you were going to get the honest truth. And that’s what we try and do at Gurls Talk. There will always be a backbone to these stories that is one of hope. I am also always trying to bridge the gap between storytelling, a lived experience, and academics. The thing is, I was like, I had no idea what was going on [growing up], and I come from a privileged background. So I was able, as the years went by, to search for professionals who could diagnose me, But lots of people don’t have that chance. I know many self-diagnosed people, so it is also about that. It’s like we’re not about doing fluff. It’s not about just some little Instagram caption that makes you feel good for five seconds. It’s longevity.
Jeremy Moeller