After over a decade since the first ever Ice Bucket Challenge went viral to raise awareness for neurodegenerative disease Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), the Ice Bucket Challenge is back, and this time with a new cause in mind: mental health awareness.
In the summer of 2014, millions of people around the world participated in the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge to spread awareness and raise money for ALS research, a progressive neurodegenerative disorder with no cure. It started with three young boys living with ALS who each recorded themselves dumping ice-cold water over their heads and each nominating another person to do the same thing. After only a few days since the boys’ initial nominations, the challenge went viral on the internet and ended up raising over 115 million dollars nationwide.
The 2025 version is the same idea of dumping an ice-cold bucket of water over your head; however, this time the goal is to spread awareness for mental health, a topic many people around the world can relate to. A group of students from the University of South Carolina revived the challenge by starting the #SpeakYourMind campaign through the nonprofit organization Active Minds, whose goal is to encourage youth and young adults to change the stigma surrounding mental health. The hope of the student group who started the campaign is that people around the world feel more supported to speak up about their mental health and feel encouraged to reach out for help when they need it.
Most people know the basic idea of the challenge is dumping a bucket full of cold water over their heads, but how else does it work? To participate, you first need to be nominated by someone, whether it’s one person or multiple people. Once you are nominated, you must film a video of you nominating 2 to 5 people by tagging them in your video. After you say who you nominate, you dump the bucket of water on your head and upload your video to any social media of your choice, whilst using the hashtag #SpeakYourMind.
While the 2025 challenge isn’t fully finished yet, Active Minds has already passed their 250,000 dollar goal and has raised 338,000 dollars towards mental health resources for young students and adults around the world.
