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Content warning: This article contains mentions of suicide
In January 2022, The dazzling Cheslie Kryst, who was a well-known pageant contestant, attorney and TV personality, took her own life at the young age of 30. On January 30, an unknown person fell from an “elevated position” from a building in Manhattan. That person was determined to be Kryst. Her death was pronounced a suicide by the New York City medical examiner’s office. Kryst’s death signifies a growing concern for marginalized groups, especially Black women, with regard to the topic of mental health.
In May 2022, Kryst’s mother, April Simpkins sat down for an interview on “Red Table Talk” revealing her daughter had attempted suicide before. Kryst was academically skilled and athletic, an all-rounder at school, which led her to take on a graduate program at Wake Forest University, earning dual degrees in law and business administration. As she was in law school, her mental health began to decline rapidly and she attempted suicide. Simpkins eventually learnt of this, and began calling her daughter multiple times a day to offer her support, and Kryst also began counselling. Kryst’s mental health crisis came as unexpected to her loved ones, from whom she had hidden her symptoms of depression well. Simpkins mentioned that although Kryst kept adding achievements and awards to her resume she had been battling depression for years.
Many of Kryst’s colleagues were shocked by her death. Nate Burleson, who worked with Kryst on the show “Extra”, stated that Kryst was “truly like a beaming light in every room.” He continued to state, “There wasn’t one moment that I could point to,” he said, “which makes it even more confusing and difficult to deal with.”
Friend and former co-host Carson Kressley told Insider about his reaction: “What’s so shocking is that she seemed like she was in a great place. She had everything you think people would want, but yet, she was struggling with depression and apparently quite privately with it.”
Kryst’s mother described her daughter’s condition as “high-functioning depression”. Although this is not an official medical diagnosis, Dr. Christin Drake, a clinical associate professor at the N.Y.U Grossman School of Medicine, acknowledges that the term can be useful as “a person can be experiencing significant distress and significant symptoms of major depression and not have it be evident to those around them, even people with whom they are quite close.”
In 2021, Allure Magazine invited Kryst to write an article, which was titled “A Pageant Queen Reflects on Turning 30”. In this excerpt, Kryst wrote:
“I discovered that the world’s most important question, especially when asked repeatedly and answered frankly, is: why? Why earn more achievements just to collect another win? Why pursue another plaque or medal or line item on my résumé if it’s for vanity’s sake, rather than out of passion? Why work so hard to capture the dreams I’ve been taught by society to want when I continue to find only emptiness?” Kryst’s article also touched upon the harsh treatment experienced by people as they age, especially women.
Kryst's tragic death serves as a stark reminder that there are many people silently struggling with their mental health on an everyday basis. Black people are faced with pressure to appear mentally strong, and the "Strong Black Woman Schema" expects that Black women are able to demonstrate extreme emotional resilience while enduring adversity. This obligation to appear mentally strong and emotionless can, in some cases, exacerbate pre-existing mental health conditions, including stress associated with chronic racial discrimination.
The Health and Human Services Office of Minority Health confirms that, in the U.S., Black adults are more likely to face mental health struggles such as emotional distress and hopelessness compared to their white counterparts. Due to the heightened discrimination and inequity Black people face, only 1 in 3 Black Americans who may benefit from mental health treatment seek it out. Not only do Black people face harsher financial circumstances in general, but the stigma around mental health is deep-rooted. In the 1990s, an opinion poll was published where 63% Black Americans were found to believe that depression was a sign “of personal weakness.”
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