Lady Gaga is using her prodigious presence and power to speak out against bullying while empowering youth with the launch of her foundation “Born This Way.”
The Fame Monster arrived at Harvard University with other lionized figures such as media mogul powerhouse Oprah Winfrey, world renowned spiritual leader Deepak Chopra, and Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius to help lead the charge in “challenging meanness and cruelty.”
“I believe that if you have revolutionary potential, you must make the world a better place and use it,” she said via Yahoo News.
The “Born This Way” singer-performer co-founded the initiative with her mother, Cynthia Germanotta, to provide a ”safe community that helps connect young people with the skills and opportunities they need to build a braver, kinder world,” per the foundation’s website. Gaga also was moved into the direction of this movement after learning of a 14-year-old boy’s suicide because of online bullying and at school.
She reminded them that there is no law to make people be kind to one another and added: “I wish there was because, you know, I’d be chained naked to a fence somewhere trying to pass it.”
The 25-year-old, who was a victim of bullying as a teenager, said the idea for the foundation grew out of the dialogue created after “Born This Way” was released. She said she received an onslaught of letters and emails from people who said such things as, “I want there to be more tolerance in the universe. I want there to be more acceptance.”
“The Poker Face” singer said the foundation is working with a new media agency to create a social media environment that fosters the foundation’s goals. Adding that a “Born Brave Bus” will follow her tour bus around the country and will “welcome anyone from any walk of life” to “talk about love, acceptance, kindness” and other goals of the foundation.
“I want this to be an organization where you all feel involved,” she said.
She reiterated that she does not have the answers to stopping bullying and preventing violence. She urged students to go back to their communities and do “simple acts of kindness” to help foster acceptance, tolerance and individuality.
Although many probably can’t see the superstar beyond her theatrical fashion stints, Gaga’s influence cannot be undermined. She recently unveiled her own social network, “Little Monsters,” which is set up like the latest social networking crave PinInterest. She has 19.7 million Twitter followers, the most for any user, and was the first to reach 1 billion viewers on YouTube—crazy!
Late Wednesday, Gaga’s representative said the singer made a $1.2 million personal contribution to the foundation, named after her 2011 album and hit song.
