‘Vulnerability Is So Essential:’ The USWNT Gets Candid About Mental Health

Athletes are sometimes perceived as tough: physically and mentally. But because the US Women’s National Team (USWNT) prepared to take to the sector for the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup last month, they desired to share a more complex, dynamic story.

Yes, they were strong, confident competitors able to play their best—but they were also human beings who sometimes struggled. The team wanted fans, and particularly young athletes, to see all those facets directly.

That’s why, in powerful videos airing throughout the tournament, the players talk openly about athlete mental health. In one video, 10 players—each veterans and younger athletes—speak to their reflections after which on to the camera. “Each day we face adversity,” forward Sophia Smith says. “The mental hurdles seem high,” midfielder Julie Ertz continues, “but I’m here to support you,” forward Alyssa Thompson adds. “Vulnerability is an indication of strength, not weakness,” striker Alex Morgan says.

The videos are part of a bigger mental health initiative the team launched during this 12 months’s World Cup, in partnership with Common Goal, a global charitable network and movement that uses soccer as a catalyst for social change. And although the US team was eliminated from play relatively early on this tournament, they hope the message could have lasting impact.

Talking openly about mental health is a problem that’s incredibly personal for Naomi Girma, a defender for the San Diego Wave who played in her first World Cup this 12 months. In an emotional essay for The Players’ Tribune right before play began, Girma dedicated the tournament to her Stanford teammate and best friend, Katie Meyer, who died by suicide a 12 months ago.

Along with helping Stanford win the 2019 NCAA tournament, Meyer was “essentially the most unapologetic, positive, caring person on the planet,” Girma wrote. “Her death shocked all the Stanford campus, and all the soccer world. For me, and for the remaining of her close friends, it left a void in our lives that’s so deep that it’s inconceivable to place into words.”

Girma’s grief stays fresh and raw, and putting all of it on the market was hard, she said. But she knew she didn’t wish to let a chance just like the World Cup pass without doing something to honor Meyer—and help others coping with similar mental health struggles. “I do know that the people who find themselves smiling essentially the most, and laughing the loudest, and loving people the toughest, and shining the brightest…sometimes, they’re going through things that you possibly can never imagine,” she wrote.

Girma approached Common Goal earlier this 12 months with the concept for a mental health project, Lilli Barrett-O’Keefe, the manager director of Common Goal USA, tells SELF. As Girma worked with the organization to craft the plan—she’s highly involved, all the way down to the main points, Barrett-O’Keefe says—they gathered more partners (including Fox Sports and its parent company Fox Corporation, Women in Soccer, E-Motion, and Footballco, together with its women’s football brand Indivisa).