Lady Gaga: I curated my life to be an expression of my pain

Lady Gaga overcame depression by creating her pop star persona, who was stronger than the real Stefani Germanotta.

The Bad Romance singer has been open about her personal struggles with mental illness, once admitting she felt like she was dying when crippling depression consumed her at the end of 2013. Thankfully the star is in a much better place now and she attended the Emotion Revolution Summit at the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence on Saturday (24Oct15) to speak candidly about her experiences.

"I invented myself, Lady Gaga - I curated my life to be an expression of my pain," she said at the event, according to elle.com. "This is how I overcame my depression, by creating somebody that I felt was stronger than me.

"But... nothing was able to fix how I was genetically made. I was born this way. No matter how much success you have, no matter how many opportunities, fame, fortune—no matter how many people accept you, to your face, the person that really needs to accept you is you."

Gaga feels so strongly about raising awareness for mental health and emotional stability that her Born This Way Foundation sponsored the summit.

Having faced media scrutiny ever since she broke into the music industry in 2008, the star knows how important it is to be true to yourself, not to try and be someone you are not for the benefit of others.

"(This is) why we're here today," she continued. "We're going to talk about why it's important to accept yourself, why it's important to empower yourself, and why it's important that emotional intelligence is taken seriously."

Before her speech, the 29 year old launched the #IAMNOTJUST campaign on Instagram and Twitter. The star shared posts from her own followers and hopes it will start an "emotion revolution".