At a Dinner for the Youth Anxiety Center, Anna Wintour and Helena Foulkes Invited Guests to Partake in a Conversation on Mental Health

Last night’s dinner was not a group therapy session, but members in the room—a collection of mental-health professionals, wellness practitioners, and fashion designers—swapped stories as though it were.

The evening, hosted by Anna Wintour, the Hudson’s Bay Company CEO Helena Foulkes, and NewYork-Presbyterian’s Youth Anxiety Center executive director Dr. Herbert Pardes, was centered on mental health—a matter that is, unfortunately, in need of all of our attention. Per an October 2019 study released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the rate of teen suicide is rising at an alarming rate. Through all its work, the YAC is committed to reducing that number via effective ways to diagnose, treat, and help teens and young adults suffering from anxiety disorders.

Among those attending the dinner, a lovely spread at Tribeca’s Locanda Verde, were Vera Wang and Wendi Murdoch (both founding members of the YAC), Kenneth Cole, Misha Nonoo, Lola Bute, Ashley Mills and Mark Mullett (of Obé Fitness), and Rebecca Parekh, Sarrah Hallock, and Kane Sarhan (of Manhattan wellness center, The Well).

Everyone arrived, shed their coats, and made their way to the restaurant’s back room for an intimate, candle-filled dinner where Foulkes and Zandy Forbes welcomed guests. “What is so striking and unique about this Youth Anxiety Center is that it’s not this independent center that was set up and spends huge amounts of money on buildings and infrastructure. It was put together to take advantage of the infrastructure and expertise of two of the best mental-health centers and psychiatric departments in the country—Columbia and Cornell University. So when you support the Youth Anxiety Center, your money is actually going to really working on treating patients to research,” announced Forbes.

Over a family-style meal of Locanda’s standouts (burrata, beet salads, mini steak filets), guests like Parekh touted cognitive behavior therapy, citing her own experience with the treatment while Dr. Shannon Bennett waxed poetic on yoga and all its mental-health benefits.

Just before dessert was served, a quick panel discussion was led by Glamour editor in chief Samantha Barry and the YAC’s Dr. Francis Lee and Dr. Anne Marie Albano. Though the subject matter was heavy, the conversation ended on a positive note that, even among the most conservative cultures in which mental disorders remain taboo, “kids are de-stigmatizing themselves. Kids will talk about these things,” said Albano. The rest, of course, is up to us.