The Chelsea captain is admirably open about her experiences with mental health, but this has not always been the case.

It has taken time to find her voice and speak about her struggles. The first step came several years ago when she confided in someone she knew she could trust.

‘You look like you’re about to explode,’ Bright recalls former Blues manager Emma Hayes telling her during that conversation. She was right.

Millie felt she was reaching boiling point. Those around her noticed. And a conversation with Hayes – one the Blues captain admits she ‘dreaded' – helped change her life.

The 31-year-old now appreciates mental health is not something that should be grappled with alone. By sharing her story, our skipper hopes to help others.

She is doing just that as an ambassador for YoungMinds, which today launched its Hello Yellow initiative encouraging people to wear the bright colour to show that nobody is ever alone.

Being an ambassador for a charity that helps young people and their families means a lot to Millie – and is something that hits home.

She has witnessed firsthand how a loved one can be affected by mental health, while family has been a trigger to her own struggles due to taking on the weight of others' problems.

‘As a kid, I’ve always seen myself as the glue in my family and I tried to keep everyone together,’ Bright explains. ‘I probably take the load of people’s problems and make sure my family are supported and have everything they need.

‘My mum struggled with anxiety and depression, so seeing her journey and the effects that mental health has on someone, I don’t think people quite understand the lengths it can affect you too.

‘It’s awful seeing someone – especially my mum because she’s the closest person to me – go through it. She’s come out the other side and I feel fortunate to be able to say that and that she’s happy. She still has her demons and dark days and some days take their toll, but she has come out the other side.

‘Not everyone is fortunate to come out the other side and get back to a happy place, though. So it's important to make sure you have a support network and to have the option to speak to someone to get advice if you’re struggling to feel like yourself.

‘I’ve had my own difficult times. Not every time has been spoken about because I’ve kept it to myself. I owe a lot of that to Emma Hayes in terms of being confident enough to speak out. She taught me a lot in that speaking out is a strength, not a weakness.

‘I hope talking about my journey, my experiences, what's helped me, and what I struggle with will show people that life can be dandy and you can have all the success in the world, but you can still struggle.

'Sometimes you can be very naïve to what we see on social media compared what is happening in reality. I’m happy to say I’m in a good place and confident enough to share that. I’ve worked out what works for me and what helps me in those darker times.’

What works for Millie is a safe circle of people, which includes but is not limited to her mum and dad, fiancée Levi, Chelsea team-mates Sam Kerr, Guro Reiten, Erin Cuthbert, former Blue Carly Telford and Rachel Daly.

She also writes in a journal - something she would do with Daly, detailing the highs and the lows, and takes time away from social media, especially when in high-pressure environments like tournament football.

‘Mental health can be a dark journey,' Bright adds. 'But with those people around you, you can get through it and don’t have to suffer. It doesn't have to be an option because there is so much support.

‘I don’t write in my journal every day, but if I need to I will. I’ve done it for every tournament because being in tournaments is the most challenging period mentally and I come off social media so I can become super focused.

‘Journaling for me is not just writing negative things or the things I’ve struggled with, it’s the good things too so I can look back and reassure myself.

‘Limiting social media in times that is extremely important. For tournament football and massive games, it's limiting what I allow into my safe space – not reading unnecessary comments from people who don’t know me or have any attachment to my life.

‘I always say to the youngsters to value the people who can make a difference in their life. Someone trolling you on the internet isn’t going to affect your life in any way shape or form, nor are they going to bring anything good to your life. Therefore the opinion is irrelevant.’

The pressures faced by footballers can be incredibly niche. For Millie and her England team-mates, one such example occurred overnight in the summer of 2022.

‘The pressures of the game have gone through the roof,’ our captain says. ‘It’s been adjusting to a different life.

'Off the back of the Euros, it was going in as one person and coming out as another. That was such a hard change. I had to adjust to a completely different life.

‘It shows the growth of the game – an amazing thing – but affects people more than perhaps people thought it would.

‘One minute you could walk down the street and get away with nobody recognising you, and the next you couldn’t go anywhere without being spotted or bombarded.

‘It is amazing to see where the game has gone, but it comes with that extra bit of pressure and more eyes are on you. This is where we have to adapt and find ways to deal with those pressures in order to keep progressing.

'We have to make sure they can become positives and not negatives.'

However, Millie appreciates it’s not only those in the public eye who battle with their mental health battles. And no matter how big or small a factor may seem to some, the Blues defender knows how its presence can still be felt.

‘You don’t need to be a footballer to struggle with mental health,’ Bright adds. ‘It can happen to anyone. You could be a single parent with three children working all hours in the day to put food on the table.

‘Life throws so much at people but I can only talk about my experiences – and football is just a fraction of my life. There are things going on in the background or I'm thinking about becoming a senior player, about retirement life after football. It's all these different factors.

‘Mental health is always spoken about in terms of doom and gloom. I want to switch that, for it to be someone's superpower. If you truly take care of your mental health, it can take you on to some amazing things in life and you build up this powerful mindset.

‘Your mental health is so powerful that you have to make sure you respect it, that you're looking after it.

'Then when you face your challenging moments and factors that might affect you, they don’t because you understand yourself, and your mind and you know what you need to do in that moment.

‘It’s not all dark days.’

Millie is right. Mental health is not only about struggles and battles. It is every emotion we feel throughout our lives. That’s why our captain wants to encourage us to talk about it all.