Volunteer Series: The Power of Validation

Jess Kershaw

This new series on Fearless volunteers gives writers, artists and partner organisations an opportunity to share why they choose to work with us. Most often, we know people want to be part of Fearless to pay forward support that made all the difference to them during a time of mental health challenge. The knowledge that a simple act of sharing powerfully breaks down the stigma positioning people in dangerous isolation and reducing our connections to one another is a beautiful, essential thing.

The increase in progressive social enterprises like Fearless Femme – businesses prioritising social change instead of profit – is expanding volunteering opportunities so people can increasingly align values, passions and work. So what do we know for sure about volunteering? Well, we know volunteering in a sector you want to work in puts important experience on CVs and builds confidence with entering the workforce as a young person or a returner. We also know through scientific research that altruism actually increases happiness, so volunteering with the specific aim of helping others benefits our own wellbeing too. As the UK’s Mental Health Foundation charity so aptly puts it, ‘doing good does you good’.

Jess Kershaw has volunteered several articles for Fearless which have been shared widely across social media by our community. Jess’s voice is honest and accessible and her writing deals – apparently effortlessly – with areas all too often clumsily addressed or entirely overlooked for young people.  Jess talks here about why volunteering with Fearless has been so meaningful in her journeys as a writer and friend. 

“When I was younger, I pretended that I was okay. I didn’t really know how to articulate what I was feeling. I forced myself to be chirpy; I plastered confidence on with a trowel; but it was a brittle, shivering sort of self-image that was liable to crumble at the tiniest problem.

But now I’ve grown up. I read stories about people who struggled with anxiety and depression; who lived with it; who thrived with it. Now, I write about mental health to process my feelings – but also because I think of that scared little girl I used to be, and what she would need to hear, and how important it is to know that you are not alone.

Fearless Femme have published three pieces of my writing since spring this year. Most recently they published, The Tender Edges, an essay dealing with my decision to stop drinking alcohol as I realised my habits were becoming unhealthy. My aim is not to state that there is only one way to handle anxiety or drinking – only to start a discussion. To quote my own article: ‘So, let’s talk about me, and then if you want to talk about you, you can.’ Fearless Femme is a wonderful avenue for this; the team are absolutely lovely, and they really do a great job of making sure that a broad spectrum of stories are told.

I’ve also written for Fearless Femme about the stress of being a high-achieving student at Cambridge, while also having undiagnosed mental health issues; and about how women are encouraged to compete against one another to try and hit ever-moving and hugely unrealistic targets of perfection. My brain is a scrambled mess of ideas, and Fearless Femme’s themes – ‘body-image’, or ‘failure’ – are really useful, helping me organise my thoughts so I can write.

Fearless Femme has been fabulous for me – I feel validated as a writer, and I have made some great friends. Being linked to a team at Fearless Femme who clearly care about me as an individual as well as the mental health of young people generally is powerful – I know if I need support with my writing the team will be there to help me. People have reached out to me to say how much my writing has helped them, which just makes me so tremendously happy.”