125. The Most Dangerous Lie About Mental Health with JeNoah Lee125. The Most Dangerous Lie About Mental Health with JeNoah Lee
Together S.O.B.E.R.
Louise Barnett speaks with JeNoah Lee about his experience of racial bullying, years of therapy and isolation, and how fashion and advocacy appear to help him turn pain into purpose. The conversation seems to focus on unmasking mental health struggles, trusting gut instincts and using creativity as a way to rebuild a sense of self.
59:15•13 Jul 2026
Turning Racial Bullying Into Purpose: JeNoah Lee on Mental Health, Fashion and Identity
Episode Overview
- Racial bullying in childhood can create lasting emotional scars, especially when schools minimise or ignore the harm.
- Therapy and a strong family support system can be crucial in moving from a victim mindset to seeing oneself as a survivor.
- Isolation, such as leaving school for online or home education, may feel protective yet can deepen loneliness and insecurity.
- Creative outlets like fashion, writing or acting can become powerful ways to channel pain and rebuild confidence.
- Questioning the stories you tell yourself and listening to your gut can help you challenge dangerous lies about your mental health.
““The hurricane is the most brutal storm… but two things are true: it’s always going to pass and you can always rebuild.””
How do people find strength in their journey to sobriety? This conversation between Louise Barnett and 20-year-old entrepreneur and mental health advocate JeNoah Lee offers one vivid answer. You’ll hear JeNoah share how severe racial bullying at age ten pushed him into therapy, isolation and suicidal thoughts, and how he later chose to call himself a survivor rather than a victim.
He describes being one of very few children of colour at school, hearing jokes about his skin and hair, and watching his parents battle a school system that “was like talking to a brick wall” because the bully was the teacher’s son. The emotional fallout was huge. JeNoah talks about years of feeling stuck in what he calls a "mental prison" and being pulled out of school to be taught online and at home, which left him feeling painfully isolated.
Yet that same isolation became the spark for something new. Time alone turned into time to sew, paint and design; fashion became, as he puts it, the thing he "eat, sleep and breathe" and one of the key tools that helped save him alongside therapy and family support.
Louise and JeNoah swap stories about their own darkest periods and how creative outlets – a clothing brand for him, a book and coaching for her, film acting for her daughter – offered a way to turn pain into purpose. JeNoah’s current project, "Who is JeNoah Lee", uses bold imagery and public messaging to act as "a mirror for self-reflection", encouraging people to ask themselves who they are and what they truly want beyond crisis.
JeNoah leaves the audience with a challenge: the most dangerous lie about mental health might be any story you tell yourself that goes against what you know in your gut. So, if you looked in the mirror today and asked "Who am I, really?", what answer would you give yourself?
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