Sutton Foster has a lot on. The 47-year-old Broadway performer also co-hosted JOANN’s World Mental Health Day event last week and wrote the book Hooked: How Crafting Saved My Life, which was published last year.
The singer has always placed a premium on mental health. Foster reveals to Prevention that she had an agoraphobic mother as a child, which she claims contributed to her own struggle with anxiety. “I have dealt with anxiety in the past, notably during my formative years and in my 20s and early 30s. My mother was an agoraphobe and had quite serious mental health problems, according to Foster. “I believe I had a lot of anxiety and stress growing up, sort of navigating a problematic environment,” the speaker said.
So how did she develop coping skills? Foster claims that she first became interested in creating through her mother, who taught her how to do cross-stitching. Foster quips, “Cross-stitching was my ‘gateway craft’.” “My mother used to cross-stitch Christmas decorations and bookmarks, and what I find so wonderful about them is that I know she made them with her hands and poured all this love into them and they go on forever,” the author says.
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Foster finds that crafts not only helps her cope with anxiety, but also with a demanding Broadway profession. “I can be more productive sometimes when the circumstances are more demanding. I was tremendously productive in the weeks preceding the premiere of Music Man and produced a ton of items! ”
Sutton Foster has managed to maintain her sense of humour throughout. She still experiences anxiety, though, and struggles like everyone else. I’m a human, she explains. She reiterates that you have a little more ease and confidence in who you are as you get older, and care less about what other people think of you, saying, “But I definitely have more perspective and maybe it’s just because I’ve been alive longer and had to deal with different things…I think I’m happier in my 40s than I’ve ever been.”
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“It’s important to me, especially given how many young kids I work with. She explains that there are things you can do to make yourself feel better and help you get through the day. “I wanted [them] to know that [they] are] not alone.” There are so many things out there that can make you happy and joyful; I’m simply sharing what I do and what I like.
Don’t always believe everything you see on television or on social media, of course. I appear to be a very accomplished, put-together person from the outside, she claims. But I also deal with things, and it’s crucial to not be embarrassed to seek for assistance.
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