When everyone around you only shows a perfect picture, it can feel as though you are the only one who sometimes feels stressed or down. To show young people that everyone sometimes feels not okay and encourage them to talk about how they really feel, sor and Tabitha made the song ‘It’s Okay’. They too sometimes feel not okay and can relate to performance pressure. On 23 May, sor and Tabitha performed the song for the first time during a surprise performance at ROC TOP in Amsterdam.

Talking to prevent more serious mental health problems

One in three young people has mental health problems. This is shown by the COVID-19 Health Survey (2022) conducted by the National Institute for Public Health and the Environment. These problems include symptoms such as anxiety, depressive feelings, stress, loneliness and sleep problems. To reduce the risk of emerging mental health problems becoming more serious, it is important for young people to be open about how they feel. This is not yet self-evident for a large group of young people. The perfect life seems to be the norm.

“We expect too much of ourselves,” says Maarten van Ooijen, State Secretary at the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport. “More than half of students experience performance pressure. Among other things, this performance pressure causes mental health problems for many young people. It is important to talk to someone you trust when you do not feel okay. Such as a friend, your parents or your teacher. It is a relief.”

Mariam (22) can relate to that. She felt a great deal of pressure to perform at school and for a long time did not feel the need to talk about it. She saw it as a sign of weakness and thought that other people would not be able to solve her problems anyway. She sees that differently now. “When I confided in a teacher and my best friend, I felt that I was no longer facing it alone. It was a huge relief.”

Materials for schools

In addition to the song, various communication materials have been created for this campaign that schools can use royalty-free on their own channels. The materials include mirror ads, posters, videos and social media posts. Education professionals can download the materials via the toolkit with campaign materials for ‘Hey, It’s Okay’.

The song ‘It’s Okay’ is available to stream on Spotify and other platforms. The music video was launched on 30 May. The campaign can be seen on social media (Instagram account @heyhetisoke) and at schools, among other places. More information can be found at Heyhetisoke.nl.

About the new youth campaign

The ‘Hey, It’s Okay’ campaign is an initiative of the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport (VWS) and was developed in collaboration with MIND, MIND Us, Young Impact and Snapchat. The campaign encourages young people with emerging mental health problems to talk about how they feel. It shows that everyone sometimes feels not okay due to stress, low mood, insecurity or fear of failure. It also provides tips for dealing with these feelings, including by sharing young people’s experiences.