Riverdale's Lili Reinhart Wants to Open the Conversation Surrounding Depression

Lili Reinhart is stepping into the spotlight in a big way with her role as Betty Cooper on the widely popular show Riverdale, and she's using her star power to bring to light some very important issues. The 20-year-old actress recently spoke out about her struggles with depression and anxiety in an interview with Cosmopolitan.com and why her fans shouldn't feel ashamed if they're struggling with mental illness. "There's no pattern necessarily, it can come and go in waves, which makes it a little more difficult because you're not really sure when one point ends and another point begins," she said. "It can be based off a certain situation or it can be seasonal or it can have no reason at all, because it doesn't need a reason."

Celebrities are often commended for openly talking about depression and anxiety, but Lili feels it isn't something anyone needs praise for speaking about. "It should be commonplace," she added. "It should be something that we talk about in school. The fact that it isn't makes people ashamed of it. For teenage kids, they feel a pressure to sweep things under the rug because they feel like they're not important enough to have problems." While shows like 13 Reasons Why focus on how bullying can instill feelings of depression and anxiety, for Lili that wasn't the case. "I had friends at school. People were like, 'You have no reason to be upset. Your feelings are illogical.' My message is that that's not true. You don't have to have a reason. Your feelings are validated by the fact that you're feeling them."