THe Kids Aren’t Alright
An essay series examining depictions of adolescent depression in popular young adult fiction.
Created as part of the 2021-2022 UCSB Raab Writing Fellows program.
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“Within subject matter as sensitive and fraught as mental illness, the clash between creating a marketable product and the need for ethical representation can have disastrous consequences. And nowhere is this more clear than in Thirteen Reasons Why.”
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“Functionally, Dear Evan Hansen adds as much to the conversation about teenage depression as a pastel Instagram infographic with the suicide hotline number copy-pasted on: Do the bare minimum and have a five-minute musical number congratulating yourself for it.“
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“The characters in “Euphoria” are undergoing through great amounts of trauma, sure, but they’re also selling an image. Its characters are fashionable and unique and impossibly beautiful, serving looks at parties while on the verge of breakdowns. There’s a clear association created here: Turmoil is the aesthetic.”