For my analysis of a public service announcement, I choose The Mind Set – Laurie Hernandez | Love, Your Mind. Laurie is a two time Olympics medalist who famously competed for the US during the Rio Olympics in 2016. Not only is Hernandez known for her achievements as the first athlete born in the 21st century to win an Olympic gold medal, she has also been open about her mental health.
After the 2016 Olympic games, Hernandez took a hiatus from gymnastics to pursue other projects. In 2020, it was announced that her former coach had mentally and physically abused Hernandez and the gymnastics team. During the trial, it was revealed that the coach bullied Hernandez about her weight and forced her to compete while injured. Hernandez has suffered from physical injuries, but the mental abuse also caused her to suffer depression and battle eating disorders.
Hernandez has spoken up about her mental health in hopes to help others who are suffering with mental illness. The video showcases Hernandez practicing gymnastics and talking about the 2016 Rio Olympic games, which is where she became a household name. She talks about how important mental health is for athletes and what goes into becoming an Olympic athlete. The video showcases Hernandez practicing on a beam while she discusses how being an athlete not only takes time, but also discipline in order to perfect a routine.
While athletes train for years, Hernandez goes into detail about what they don’t train for, which is the 30 seconds to 2 minutes before going on stage and performing the routine in front of thousands of people. During this time, an athlete, like Hernandez, can get stressed and psych themselves out, which can affect their performance.
To help better prepare Hernandez for this moment, she has a ritual to help ground herself to remind her she is in control. To Hernandez it was touching the equipment like the beam before jumping on it and performing her routine. She then went into returning to gymnastics after her hiatus and received thousands of comments on social media (good and bad) when posting about her training progress.
The comments she faced on social media, along with the abuse she received from her former coach, were factors when she fell from her beam routine. Despite wanting to give up, she got back up on the beam and performed. Even hours after the fall Hernandez mental health was still affected and felt like the earth was spinning in her mind.
Hernandez continues to open up about her mental health struggles and how her performances were after a lot of blood, sweat and tears. She does emphasize that despite the struggles, she still performs and shows off a tattoo on her arm that says ‘brave’, to remind herself she is brave. Hernandez goes on about despite her mental health challenges, she still goes through with her gymnastics routine and speaks up about her struggles.
The video shows a leotard that Hernandez holds special meaning. The leotard Hernandez especially made off of a superhero line and added rhinestones in specific places so when she was doing belly breaths she could feel the rhinestones in her hand to be reminded that there is life outside of competing and gymnastics.
The video concludes with Hernandez saying that stress and anxiety is relative. She relates to the audience by sharing the nervous feeling she gets right before competing is the same feeling a person gets right before taking a test. Competing for the Olympics or taking a test or trying something new is all brave, no matter how big or small it might be. The moments where we are with our thoughts right before a test or competition and go forward with the test or competition is when we are most brave. When we are alone and have to make the decision to go forward, despite challenges, it is brave.
Throughout the video, Hernandez showcases Persuasion and Emotion Theory, by shifting the video from showcasing her as a public figure, to her personal struggles with mental health to ending the video with bravery. The video first begins with the positive of being a gold metal Olympian, then goes into the negative side of fame by receiving backlash showing her training after taking a hiatus. The video does end on a positive note by Hernandez sharing how to be brave and shows her leotard.
The video also shows Hernandez confidently performing her routine in a simple workout outfit feeling confident, sitting down with the camera to discuss her experience with mental health while performing gymnastics. By going from her performing to getting personal with the camera, changes our perception of her out of the spotlight. Even when she performs her famous beam routine in one of her favorite leotards that helps her feel grounded, showcases to the audience that she is like everyone else and suffers from mental health.
The video also showcases Specific and General Judgments by Hernandez having several emotions throughout the short video. The video begins showing Hernandez happy and practicing her iconic gymnastics routine. The video then cuts to her getting emotional about her mental health challenges and struggling to do routines she used to do with ease. The video does end on how despite the challenges she faced, Hernandez did not quit and continued to finish her routine.
The start of the video with Hernandez doing her signature routine, shows the audience who she is and that she is a confident strong person. While the video progresses, Hernandez is seen preparing herself mentally before getting on the beam by touching it and grounding herself by saying different mantras. While she is seen performing her routine flawlessly, screenshots appear of comments made about her going back to gymnastics on social media. This shows how much Hernandez was judged for going back to a sport that she loved and also made her into a public figure.
The video accurately showcases it as a prime example to stay brave, even when times are tough. She has an empowering backstory of winning two olympic metals, but also needing a break due to her mental health and how she copes with it today. From showing her vulnerable side of how social media and performing at a world stage at such a young age as affected her, to learning how she overcame her challenges, Hernandez offers viewers how to be brace when times get tough.
