In an It Gets Better video, Thomas Roberts, the openly gay anchor on MSNBC, says he attempted suicide at age 15.

The It Gets Better Project encourages troubled gay teens to hang in there and not cave in to bullies, because life gets better.

“At 15 I unsuccessfully attempted suicide,” the handsome 38-year-old Roberts says. “Luckily, my sister found me and saved my life. My family, they rallied around me, but I couldn't tell them what had brought me to that point. But I saw first-hand the pain in their eyes and I realized that suicide wasn't the answer.”

Roberts, who previously acknowledged that he was a victim of sexual abuse, tells gay teens that “You're here for a purpose.”

“You've got to know and believe that you are here for a purpose, I promise that you are – just the way you are,” he says. (The video is embedded in the right panel of this page.)

Other celebrities who have added their voices to the collection include singer Adam Lambert, Max Adler, who plays a bully on Glee, actor and gay dad Neil Patrick Harris and singer Ke$ha.