On Tuesday 18th January, we were very lucky to welcome BBC Futuresounds Artist and mental health advocate, Hyphen.

Hyphen had an unusual start to his music career, as he first worked in finance after gaining a degree in Philosophy and Economics. However, the job and life he was leading left him feeling a lack of purpose, and so he looked for a way to express himself. His newfound love of rap helped deal with depression and it is through this that he found a new sense of purpose. Now a BBC Futuresounds artist, Hyphen is cosigned by Yungblud, Saweetie and Jay Sean, and has been tipped as ‘The Future of British Asian Hip-Hop’ by BBC Asian Network.

Hyphen uses his life experiences, from depression to optimism, to spread a positive impact throughout UK schools, and this is exactly what he achieved when speaking to our staff and pupils.

Some staff and pupils from the UVI (Year 13) and LVI (Year 12) were very lucky to have dinner with Hyphen before his talk, and to be given the opportunity to share their own experiences with him and learn some more about him. It was very insightful to touch on some deeper topics, such as fears and personal inspirations, and each girl came away with a deeper understanding of themselves.

During the talk, Hyphen gave us a brief story of his life and how the traumatic experiences of grief and mental health issues have helped to shape the person that he is today. Although it was quite profound, it was very inspiring and gave us all a lot to think about. At the end of his talk, we were able to ask him questions anonymously through a live link. This was an opportunity to ask him freely about all the various topics in his talk, including questions such as ‘you must still have down days, how do you find motivation?’ Every question he answered openly and honestly and commented that he had never had such insightful and meaningful questions asked before.

All in all, it was a fantastic evening, and we are very grateful to have had him share his personal experiences and journey with us. Everyone came away feeling moved and full of motivation.

Mrs Beaven, Iona and Sienna (LVI)