Grammy-winning singer Lady Gaga announced Wednesday that she will partner with Harvard’s Berkman Center for Internet & Society (as well as the MacArthur Foundation and the California Endowment) to launch the Born This Way Foundation, a nonprofit focusing on youth empowerment and "issues like self-confidence, well-being, anti-bullying, mentoring and career development,” reports the Huffington Post.
Gaga decided to fight bullying head-on after the suicide of one of her fans, 14-year-old Jamey Rodemeyer, reports the Washington Post. After reports of his death—thought to be a suicide caused by bullying over his sexuality—Gaga tweeted: “The past days I’ve spent reflecting, crying, and yelling. I have so much anger. It is hard to feel love when cruelty takes someone’s life.” Soon after, the singer attended a Silicon Valley fundraising event at the home of Facebook chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg ’91, M.B.A. ’95, for President Obama, where Gaga publicly questioned the president about bullying.
The 25-year-old singer and her mother, Cynthia Germanotta, will direct the foundation, named after her second album and its title track.
“Together we hope to establish a standard of Bravery and Kindness, as well as a community worldwide that protects and nurtures others in the face of bullying and abandonment,” Gaga said in a media statement.
