Meet Janeane Bernstein | Mental Health Advocate | Journalist | Author

We had the good fortune of connecting with Janeane Bernstein and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Janeane, how does your business help the community?
OUTSIDE THE BOX originally began in early 2020 to help people impacted economically by the pandemic, especially those who lost jobs and internships. The series began with conversations featuring industry experts, authors and entrepreneurs providing advice and insight into how to pivot and navigate the job market, as well as become an entrepreneur.

As the magnitude of the pandemic unfolded, the need to prioritize content for all ages was very apparent, and especially how mental health has been impacted by COVID-19 from Gen Z on up. The series had always been on-camera and a podcast, but now weekly guests include high school and college students, millennials and other age groups talking about how to build resilience, prioritize mental health and wellness, and how these life skills create the foundation through adulthood.

I then created the CARE Initiative as a peer-to-peer initiative that focuses on the power of CONNECTION, ATTENTION to mental, physical, and emotional health, RESILIENCE, and EDUCATION on issues that are most important right now (e.g., social justice issues, diversity, equity and inclusion, homelessness, climate change, etc.). The CARE Initiative begins with an orientation for students and teachers on how to create and sustain their own impactful CARE Initiative club and maintain it through a student-run model.

What should our readers know about your business?
I started OUTSIDE THE BOX in 2020 in response to the pandemic and the magnitude of struggles people were sharing with me. I was getting messages on Linkedin from Gen Z students who had lost their job opportunities and internships and also speaking to entrepreneurs who wanted to share their advice and insight into how to pivot in a time when over 40 million people were out of work. I launched OUTSIDE THE BOX as a podcast and video series and started interviewing people sharing insight into how to find work or create new opportunities. Short thereafter, I decided to focus more on mental health and wellness and the show took off.

Creating a purpose-driven, socially conscious business has been my top priority, and now everything I do is focused on mental health, compassion, education, and empathy. I believe that we must prioritize the mental health of teachers, students, and healthcare workers to everyone at any age. People were already suffering pre-pandemic in a mental health crisis and now we are living in a mental health pandemic. The question is what can be done and how soon?

I want schools, businesses, and other organizations to realize that mental health must be a top priority because without our mental health where are we? What does the future look like for students in college and beyond? What does mental health look like for people who are socially isolated, alone, discriminated against because of their gender, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, and socio-economic status?

We need to do better and be better as a collective whole and rethink our priorities individually and as a society. My goal is to create peer-to-peer initiatives in schools and businesses, and have people connect more, focus on mental, physical, and emotional health, integrate resiliency strategies, and educate one another on issues that can have a lasting impact in connecting us as a society instead of tearing us apart. The pandemic is an opportunity for positive change if we are willing to do the work.

I am currently writing my next book, BETTER HUMANS – What the Mental Health Pandemic Teaches Us About Humanity to be published by Post Hill Press and distributed by Simon & Schuster 2023.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
I would take them for a fun day in LA, checking out Venice Beach, Santa Monica peer, the Broad Museum – the Infinity Mirror exhibit is amazing and all of their contemporary art! – the Getty museum, the amazing Griffith Observatory, a beautiful walk around Griffith Park, and then we would end up at one of my fav places – True Foods (I am vegan, but so many options for everyone) or some other cool place in the Third Street Promenade of Santa Monica, because there is something for everyone. We would then catch a show or a concert depending on what’s happening at the Pantages, the Greek Theater, the Wiltern or some other amazing venue.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
The person that comes to mind for a Shoutout is my writing teacher, Ms. Cady. When I was bombing tests left and right growing up, she said to me at 15, “There are no wrong answers in creative writing.” These words lifted a huge weight off of me and I can still remember that big sign of relief that left my body!

Up until the age of 16, I had a terrible home life and did not realize until recently that my Ds and Fs reflected my inability to concentrate and retain information. I did not learn and retain information the way a lot of my classmates did. I tried to take short cuts, would procrastinate, and blow off assignments, I realized I was a visual learner who wanted to create projects, and show my comprehension in unique ways. Once I gained confidence and started to self-advocate, school became easier. I learned from Ms. Cady to stop censoring myself, to just throw out my ideas on paper and then sculpt them like clay. I use this strategy to this very day in my work, in the books I write, and even in the screenplay I wrote about Ms. Cady.

Website: www.otbseries.com

Instagram: @janeanebernstein and @otbseries

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/janeanebernstein/

Twitter: @Momz_rock

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/janeane.bernstein

Other: www.janeanebernstein.com

Image Credits
Janeane Bernstein 2022 OUTSIDE THE BOX Series, LLC www.otbseries.com