New details about former Miss USA Cheslie Kryst’s mental health struggles are coming to light.
Kryst’s mother, April Simpkins, recently published her daughter’s posthumous memoir, “By The Time You Read This: The Space between Cheslie’s Smile and Mental Illness — Her Story in Her Own Words.” In the book, Kryst reveals having an “unshakeable feeling” that she did not belong and delves into the societal pressures she felt to be successful.
“I had to be perfect because I had to represent for all youth, women, and Black people who also wanted to be in the room but had been denied access,” Kryst writes.
An avid learner, Kryst held an MBA and a law degree before working as a social justice attorney. In 2019, she won the Miss USA pageant — and was celebrated as one of four Black women that year who held major U.S. pageant titles for the first time in history. Kryst went on to work as a correspondent for Extra, where she interviewed notable celebrities like Denzel Washington and Taylor Swift.
Kryst’s posthumous memoir comes just two years after her death by suicide at age 30, which shocked fans and those who knew her. The book includes Kryst’s private manuscripts and Simpkins’ sentiments about losing her daughter.
“We don’t always think that someone like Cheslie, who had so many things going for her, would have a voice in her head that would make her feel insecure or like she wasn’t enough,” Simpkins told Extra TV. “But she did.”
Simpkins’ public reflection of her daughter’s suicide comes just as Mental Health Awareness Month is observed in May. According to the Suicide Prevention Research Center, suicide is the second leading cause of death for people ages 10 to 14 and 25 to 34. And while the suicide rate in men is about four times higher than that of women, suicidal ideation is more common in women, and the rates of suicide in women has gradually increased over the past few decades, Statista finds.
Additional research shows increased suicide rates among Black women. A study conducted by Boston and Howard universities last year found that Black women ages 18 to 65 were at the highest risk of suicide, regardless of socioeconomic status — and the suicide risk in Black women within the highest income strata increased by 20%.
Some symptoms of suicidal ideation include individuals talking about wanting to die, withdrawing from others, eating and sleeping less, and having feelings of hopelessness, anxiousness, and unbearable emotional or physical pain, the National Institute of Mental Health states.
Simpkins told CBS News recently that Kryst’s openness of her mental health struggles helps others “who don’t want to discuss it publicly but are feeling the exact same way.” Simpkins also says she holds no guilt, knowing that she had a close relationship with Kryst, who had previously attempted suicide in her early 20s. Kryst’s final text message to Simpkins, in which she calls her “the best mom in the world,” is something that Simpkins still holds close to her heart.
“It felt like she really was, even in death, comforting me and telling me how much she still loves me, cares about me and how much I meant to her,” Simpkins says. “And I carry those words with me, constantly.”
