Young Readers Need Books Featuring Mental Health Struggles: 'Story Is What Saved Me'

Authors John Schu, Jas Hammonds, Jonell Joshua and Elvira K. Gonzalez spoke at the Brooklyn Book Festival on representation in YA and children's books.

"Books can be the perfect prescription to let us know that we're going to be okay," said author and children's librarian John Schu during a panel at the Brooklyn Book Festival. "Stories affirm our experiences."

Schu, who is the author of Louder Than Hunger, spoke as part of a panel on Sept. 29, joined by authors Jas Hammonds (Thirsty), Jonell Joshua (How Do I Draw These Memories?) and moderator Elvira K. Gonzalez (Hurdles in the Dark) to talk about the power of young adult and children's literature to help empower and support young people.

Several of the participating authors said they wrote their books — each of which deals with an aspect of mental health — in part because they wanted to show kids who are struggling that there is light on the other side.

Related: Author John Schu Wishes He Read Mental Health Books Like These as a Kid: 'This Will Save Lives' (Exclusive) 

"I really wanted to write my story to share with young people ... even if our stories may not be the exact same, it's okay to open up and be honest about what we are experiencing," Joshua said. "And it's okay to be honest and say, you know, our parents are flawed too and these are really important topics to open up and discuss."

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Schu, who was spent two years hospitalized for obsessive compulsive disorder, depression, anxiety and anorexia nervosa, said he wrote his book to show his younger self that there is light on the other side — especially after telling Oprah he didn't think it ever would.

"When I was 14 years old, I went on the Oprah Winfrey show and I told Oprah that I didn't think I would ever get better because I didn't think I could ever talk back to the inner saboteur inside of my brain that told me that I was worthless and told me that I was a miserable, awful human being," Schu said. "And through lots of therapy and through lots of self-reflection I'm on the other side of that ... but really story is what saved me."

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The panelists also acknowledged the importance of seeing mental health depicted accurately in books for young people, since books can be so powerful at that age in particular. Schu, for example, found books that "taught me to be a better anorexic" at the library, but nothing that would have helped him heal.

Joshua came across a kids' book on schizophrenia, Memories of Summer by Ruth White when she was in elementary school, which helped give voice to some of what her family was going through. And Hammonds realized when they were writing their own book, which addresses alcohol addiction and class among other issues, that it would have been a helpful resource when they were growing up.

"I experienced some of these things like when I was in my mid-twenties ... I would love to have learned this lesson when I was 16 instead of, I don't know, 26," they said. "That would've saved me a lot of heartache."

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The authors hoped that kids and young adults find their books, and books like them, because they can be an important part of helping them feel less alone — besides being fun to read. They also want kids to have access to resources to help that happen, at a time when freedom to read is far from a given.

"This is why we need funding for the library," Joshua explained. "But all of these are stories that I put within my book to hopefully empower the youth to see what I want through. And then hopefully they can also feel inspired to write their story or create in whatever way that they want to."

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