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New Reading Rainbowhost Mychal Threetshas been candid about his mental health struggles
“We need to give Doechii their flowers for making a song about anxiety,” Threets, 36, recently wrotehouting out the singer’s popular song. “We really needed that, and she came through!”
He continued, “Thank you, Doechii, we love you.”
Doechii, 28, released breakout hit “Anxiety” in 2019, which ultimately went viral in 2025
“Anxiety, keep on trying me / I feel it quietly, tryna silence me, yeah,” she sings. “My anxiety, can’t shake it off of me / Somebody’s watchin’ me and my anxiety.”
Doechii often channels her emotions and struggles in verse
“The challenge was the level of audacity it took to talk about these topics to people that I don’t know. I’m baring my soul, admitting to having an unhealthy relationship with alcohol and drugs. It’s a sensitive topic to trust people with,” Doechii told Floodmagazine in 2024, specifically referring to her Alligator Bitesrecord. “I have to trust [audiences] to please not take this for granted, and to please not use this against me. I have to be real about all this because somebody else could be going through the same thing. I needed to talk about this for myself, because this was therapy.”
Thank you, @Doechii 💐💚 Video Description: Mychal has a bouquet of flowers, insisting we give Doechii their flowers for creating a song about anxiety. We really needed it! And Doechii came through ✨ (Flowers courtesy of @Lilac Market Headbands 😊)
As for Threets, he revealed earlier this week thathe was “seeking help” after undisclosed personal struggles
“I am not OK. Maybe I’ll never be OK. I’m seeking help. Going to the hopital [sic] tomorrow,” he wrote God’s grace. No matter what happens to me I will always be thankful for the extraordinary people in my life who worry, who help me. Thank you for your care. I will always love you.”
Threets, best known as Mychal the Librarian on TikTok, was named as the new Reading Rainbowhost last year, succeeding LeVar Burton. (The OG Reading Rainbowaired on PBS from 1983 to 2006.)
“There have been two hosts in the history of Reading Rainbow. The Legend of Literacy, LeVar Burton! And … me, Mychal Threets, a librarian,” Threets wrote via Instagram in September 2025. “I was raised on Reading Rainbow [and] LeVar Burton is my hero. I am a reader, I am a librarian because LeVar Burton and Reading Rainbow so powerfully made us believe we belong in books, we belong everywhere. I am so happy for all of us that Reading Rainbow is returning! YOU all did this! We’re flying twice as high, butterflies in the sky!”
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Ahead of his Reading Rainbowgig, Threets once left a library job for “mental health reasons.”
“I was just really struggling in life, struggling at work for the first time, just started feeling burnt out, and I think my plan was, honestly, to leave the world at that time,” he told NBC Bay Area in April. “I planned to take my own life in March 2024, and I’m still struggling today, but it’s led to a life of just traveling all over the United States, and now, I’m the resident librarian for PBS, PBS Kids, and also the host of Reading Rainbow.”
If you or someone you know is struggling or in crisis, help is available. Call or text 988 or chat at988lifeline.org
