Hannah Hart and Hannah Gelb are two bubbly self-help enthusiasts tackling mental health and self-love topics on their podcast, Hannahlyze This. As two best friends who have known each other for 13 years, the relationship they’ve built is one based on trust and a lot of laughs. They intentionally bring this foundation of laughter to their podcast, because as Hannah Hart explains, “The only way to make heavy burdens lighter is to bring lightness.”

“We’re never not talking about mental health with each other,” Hannah Gelb explains at the beginning of their interview with Patreon at SXSW, “So that’s kind of how we update each other in our lives.”

Mental health is a sensitive, albeit hot topic in 2019. Millennials are having deeper conversations with friends, families, and peers about topics like anxiety and depression, despite being coined as the “anxious generation.” In a 2015 survey conducted by American University, about 80% of millennial respondents said that stress has prevented them from spending time with their friends and enjoying other activities.

But it’s not all doom and gloom for those of us that make up Generation Y. Of those that were surveyed, almost 80% said that they agreed people their age are much more open to addressing mental health topics than older people. The Hannahs embody this principle as they dive into therapeutic exercises for today’s toughest mental health challenges.

“I think a lot of what happens in the mental health space is that people forget the tedium of maintaining your mental health,” Hart says, “There’s nothing to be cured. It’s not an illness…it’s the rest of your life.”

In the first season of their podcast, Hannah and Hannah felt like covering a different topic each week didn’t allow them to thoroughly cover the ideas they wanted to explore. The pressure of finding and talking through a new topic each week left them both feeling like there was so much more to say.

“It was so hard to bang episodes out,” Gelb explains, “It was like, ‘Are we going deep enough?’”

A quick restructuring exercise helped them decide on a more effective way to move forward with season two of Hannahlyze This. Since the podcast is a passion project for both of them, it was important to give it the thought and effort it deserves.

With their relaunch on Patreon, Hannahlyze This now covers all aspects of a single topic in a season. In season two, you can look forward to a deep-dive into perfectionism and how it relates to our bodies, our relationships, and ourselves. This modular structure of these episodes allows them to dive deeper into all aspects of a single topic. With this change, they both feel more energized when it comes to their work.

One of the greatest perks of launching Hannahlyze This on Patreon was the increased ability to connect with fans. At first, the duo fretted over putting their content behind a paywall. But after working with Patreon and seeing that contributors help them create more content, they’ve found that working on Patreon has been a blast.

“Everyone can comment and interact with each other,” Gelb says. “There’s no bad thing about it.”

In addition to creating a community through Patreon, Hannah and Hannah truly believe that Patreon helps validate their podcast and ideas. Each fan that joins their Patreon page provides affirmation that they should keep going and that they have support to keep moving forward.

You can learn more about the Hannahs and how to take care of yourself and your mental health by joining their Patreon page and listening to Hannahlyze This!