The organization was founded in 2011 and formally launched in 2012 by artist Lady Gaga and her mother Cynthia Germanotta, who said "challenge meanness and cruelty by inspiring young people to create a support system in their respective communities." At the inauguration media proprietor Oprah Winfrey, writer Deepak Chopra, and United States Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius delivered speeches.