Joshua On Embracing His Sensitive Side: “Crying Is Cool!”
The HSMTMTS star shares the lesson he learned on expressing his true self!
We all know Joshua Bassett as his character, Ricky Bowen, on High School Musical: The Musical: The Series. He’s a good friend with a passion for music and a great sense of humor. He’s also a sensitive guy who writes songs from the heart and expresses his emotions. Those are all things we love his character for, but, in his real life, Joshua has struggled with being equally as open.
Growing up, Joshua felt like he had to keep a major part of himself hidden because of the judgment he would face from others. You see, he was a sensitive kid, and adults, along with kids his own age, told him he needed to be tougher. “I, like most men I know, was taught not to cry growing up,” he shares. “I was forced to suppress my ‘sensitive side.’” This meant that any time someone hurt his feelings or he felt upset, Joshua would pretend he was just fine, even if he was sad on the inside.
But holding in those emotions wasn’t healthy and, before long, whenever he’d feel sad, he’d get mad at himself for being too emotional. “At age 11, I mentally beat myself up nightly, [telling myself] ‘You cried again today? How embarrassing! Enough is enough, grow up,’” Joshua describes. Constantly telling himself those terrible things had a real impact on his mental health. “I cut myself off from my ‘tender’ self entirely,” he remembers. “I couldn’t cry if I wanted to.”
I WAS TAUGHT NOT TO CRY.
LET YOUR GUARD DOWN!
As he got older, Joshua started to see how bad it was to push his true self to the side and he knew he had to make a change. He started thinking about the people who always told him he wasn’t tough enough and realized that they were the problem, not him. “Toxicity, hatred and negativity say less about the subject, but say far more about those who spew it,” he explains.
Now, he wants to fight the toxic masculinity that plagued his childhood by encouraging all boys to express their emotions, no matter how sensitive that makes them seem. So what advice does Joshua have for you to share with the boys in your own life? “Instead of allowing your deep sadness to turn into bitterness, anger and violence, maybe grab some Kleenex and cry it out,” he suggests. “Let your guard down. Be bold enough to be vulnerable. Numb is no way to live. Crying is cool.” Wise words!