Ben Bennett named in Belfast Telegraph 30 under 30 for 2026
The Belfast Telegraph 30 under 30 for 2026 has been announced, and JustMental
co-founder Ben Bennett has been named in the cohort, six months after the launch
of an independent mental health advocacy platform that refuses to call its work
“wellness.”
JustMental co-founder Ben Bennett has been named in the Belfast Telegraph’s 30 under 30 for 2026, the annual feature spotlighting young people across Northern Ireland whose work the newspaper considers worth watching.
The 2026 cohort gathered at Titanic Distillers in Belfast’s Titanic Quarter on Thursday 17 April for the official cohort photograph.
For JustMental, launched in November 2025 as an independent mental health advocacy platform with an explicit anti-stigma, anti-corporate-wellness mission, the listing is significant. Ben, who co-founded the platform and leads its TikTok and direct-to-camera video output and is in charge of the JustMentalWear division, was named in a cohort dominated by founders, professionals and entrepreneurs across multiple sectors.
It is the platform’s first major mainstream-press recognition.
Why the Belfast Telegraph 30 under 30 listing matters
Mental health in Northern Ireland is not a comfortable subject. According to the Royal College of Psychiatrists in Northern Ireland (RCPsychNI), the consultant psychiatrist vacancy rate currently sits at 29%. The last published figure for adults waiting for mental health support, from 2022, was 16,000. Per-capita mental health funding here remains lower than anywhere else in the United Kingdom.
JustMental does not treat any of this as a softer topic. Its content does not offer breathing exercises and gratitude journals as solutions to systemic underfunding. Its tagline is plain enough: “This is not wellness. This is war against stigma.”
Ben’s role since launch has been to take that uncompromising message into the platforms where younger audiences live, TikTok, Instagram Reels, direct-to-camera explainers, without diluting it. The platform has so far interviewed the Northern Ireland Health Minister Mike Nesbitt MLA, Claire Sugden MLA and Gerry Carroll MLA, alongside contributors with lived experience of suicide bereavement, severe mental illness, military service and chronic illness.
Mental health is not an under-30 issue
Mental health does not stop at the borders of any age group. JustMental was built to have broad appeal across the population, older adults, working-age adults, young people, men and women across every walk of life in Northern Ireland. A 30 under 30 listing is one window into the work; it is not the whole frame.
The platform’s stated mission is to build a Northern Ireland in which seeking help carries no shame, where institutional failure is named for what it is, and where the language of “wellness” increasingly co-opted by employers, brands and influencers, is held to account.
For readers unfamiliar with the listing, the Belfast Telegraph 30 under 30 is
the newspaper’s annual feature recognising young people across Northern Ireland
working in business, advocacy, the arts, sport and the public sector. Inclusion
is editorial, not commercial, there is no entry fee and no sponsorship route
in. Past cohorts have included founders, clinicians, athletes and campaigners
whose work has gone on to shape sectors well beyond the listing itself. For an
independent advocacy platform six months old, being named in the 2026 cohort
sits alongside our interview with the NI Health Minister Mike Nesbitt MLA as
the strongest external indicators that JustMental’s editorial position is
being taken seriously.
A note from JustMental
“This isn’t a personal achievement. It’s a sign that the conversation we’ve been forcing is being heard. Six months in, that’s the only metric that matters.”
About JustMental
JustMental is an independent mental health advocacy platform founded in Northern Ireland in November 2025. Its three pillars are JustMentalTalk (a weekly video podcast distributed across YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts and all major social platforms), JustMentalWear (apparel with a £1-per-order charitable donation commitment) and JustMentalConnect (a therapist directory). All output follows Samaritans media guidelines on the reporting of mental health and suicide.
If you are struggling with your mental health in Northern Ireland, contact Lifeline on 0808 808 8000. The service is free, confidential and available 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.
