WATCH: Local student's mental health awareness film airs on US television
Media student Alice Kiernan from Julianstown has been overwhelmed by the reaction to a short mental health awareness film she made with a fellow student, which aired on US television last week.
Alice (20) and Megan Daly (20) from Arigna, Co Roscommon, are both third year media studies students at Maynooth University and created the four-minute video 'Dear Future Me' with the aim of getting young people to write down and list the good things about themselves.
The video has been watched across social media channels and clips from it were featured on ABC's flagship Good Morning America televisin show while singer songwriter superstar Michael Bublé was being interviewed about his new album and his future self.
Alice and Megan recorded ‘Dear Future Me’ as part of a wider campaign they created called, ‘The One Year Project’. As part of the campaign they aim to meet, and document in video, several key goals they want to achieve in 2016, including the promotion of mental health.
Alice explained how they teamed up with ReachOut.com, an online youth mental health service, and called on friends and fellow students to appear in the short film.
“It took us a week to create Dear Future Me, including filming and editing, and it went online on Wednesday, 19th October,” said Alice.
“The producer of Good Morning America contacted us on Thursday evening and asked if she could use the video on the show and for some information about us both. An article about it appeared on the ABC news website that night and then they showed some clips from the video on Good Morning America. My hands went numb when I saw Michael Bublé on television looking at our video and photos. His album is about talking to his future self so it was amazing timing.”
The media student said the video was made in conjunction with ReachOut’s ‘Note To Self’ campaign. ReachOut is appealing to young people to write a positive postcard about themselves and to give with it the ReachOut team, who will post it back to them in the future.
President of Maynooth University, Professor Philip Nolan, congratulated the students on highlighting the issue of mental health awareness among young people.
“The mental health of all our students is a priority for Maynooth University and this project is a fantastic way of reaching many young people,” he said.