This week RTE have a really special campaign to promote youth mental health. On Sunday they unveiled a beautiful piece of Joe Caslin artwork on the side of the RTE building. We’ve heard frank chats across their radio programmes from Joanne McNally, Bressie and others, and there is lots more to come, including a chat with one of our own team later this week.

Today, RTE shared a video featuring the gorgeous SmileForMe2018 Instagram account, which was set up by Leanne and Adam, two friends from Cavan, who wanted to promote positive mental health through the medium of smiles. The account shows people from all walks of life simply smiling, without filters or edits. Like this one….

“There was three significant stages with my mental health. The first was after everything turned upside down, I was swallowed into a hole and lost who I was. The second stage put the first to shame. My mind was in such a horrible state. Not only had I lost who I was, I had no desire to make anything of myself. I was broken. The third stage was the most significant. I was shown a song called ‘Your heart is a muscle the size of your fist’ and it gave me a smile. Not all my issues disappeared nor did I have a new, fresh outlook on life after I listened to it, but it did help me feel a bit better. It was the first time I noticed that even though I was broken, I could feel myself slowly coming back together. And that’s one of the best feelings.” . . . . Tara – 29/3/18 . . . . @todayfm @rte2fm @bressie @instatubridy @rubberbanditsofficial #smileforme2018 #mentalhealthawareness #instasmile #2018 #picoftheday #behappy #positivity #instagram #Ireland #today #mentalhealthmatters #mentalwellness #happiness #endthestigma #stopthestigma #healthy #youth #bethedifference #Wednesday #icare #dreams #music #galway

A post shared by smileforme2018 (@smileforme2018) on Mar 28, 2018 at 10:16am PDT

Its such a simple but powerful idea, as you can’t browse the collection of pictures without smiling, just try it.

You can watch the video below, and make sure to follow #RTEBigPic on social media all this week to see more of this kind of glorious positivisty….

“It’s real people, with real smiles”. Two friends from Co Cavan want to change the way we look at social media and get people talking about mental health 😁 #RTEBigPic #YouthMentalHealth pic.twitter.com/cG2jmCVLnk

— RTÉ News (@rtenews) April 24, 2018