By: Taylor Benes
In many young adult novels, mental illness is the backdrop of the plot. Take Thirteen Reasons Why and My Heart and Other Black Holes, for example: all main characters struggle with some form of mental illness, and every plot only survives on this fact. Still, authors tend to tackle this issue of mental illness as something that can be “fixed” thoughtlessly—especially being fixed through a love interest. The main question, however, is this: how is mental illness romanticized in young adult literature? Mental health is an incredibly complicated issue, but many young adult authors boil it down to a handful of things, romanticizing, or glamorizing, what it truly is, which can hurt readers interpretation of mental health and illness: plots point to the idea that suicide can be used as revenge, a love interest can cure mental illness, and that mental illness is quirky.
Suicide as Revenge
One of the most well-known stories of mental illness being romanticized in young adult literature is in the book Thirteen Reasons Why. A widely-read young adult novel, Thirteen Reasons Why follows high school student Hannah, who just committed suicide. She left behind thirteen cassette tapes: each dedicated to a person—a reason why—she states she committed suicide. The story follows each “reason why” and the regret her friend Clay feels for not knowing what was going on in Hannah’s head.
The book focuses on the psychology behind Hannah committing suicide, specifically why bullying pushed her to that point. Still, despite being a way readers could relate to Hannah’s mental health struggles, “the psychological reasons portrayed in this book that led to her suicide have been sensualized to the point that it got all of our brows raised. The book deals with suicide in a way that triggers emotional distress in the audience,” columnist Usraat Fahmidah criticizes (Fahmidah). Much of the plot is based on Hannah getting “revenge” on her bullies by committing suicide, which sends a vile, incorrect message to readers that suicide is a form of revenge on people who hurt the victim.
Instead of completely dropping the narrative that suicide is prevalent in many families and communities, it’s important to share the raw details why people may reach the point of contemplating suicide. According to the National Alliance on Mental Illness,
“Four million children and adolescents in this country suffer from a serious mental disorder that causes significant functional impairments at home, at school, and with peers” (“Facts”). In English Journal, high school English teacher Ashley Corbett writes this before offering alternative books to the “bestsellers” lists that truly share the reality of mental illness in young adult novels without romanticizing and stereotyping:
Mental illness is prevalent, pervasive, and far-reaching; moreover, its effects are exacerbated by public stigma and self-stigma. Novels offer a narrative version of what the public needs: education. If we can encourage young readers to broaden understanding about mental illness through literature, we contribute to the reduction of stigma and enable those who suffer from mental illness a chance to be seen, a chance to let go of the shame they may feel for being stereotyped (Corbett).
An excellent, nuanced example of how mental illness can take a toll on suicidal individuals, which would be a much better choice to teach, can be found in Jennifer Niven’s All the Bright Places. The young adult novel tells the story of an unlikely friendship and love between two individuals as they embark on a journey of wandering around the state of Indiana, discovering unique places along the way. Finch, one of the main characters, has an abusive father, and his mother denies any of Finch’s suffering. He faces undiagnosed bipolar disorder, but instead of romanticizing Finch’s struggles, Niven shares the deep, devastating possible results of mental illness. The main takeaway from the heartbreaking tale is that bystanders can want to save a suicidal person all they want, but the only way for that person to be saved is for them to actually want to be saved. It was no form of revenge for Finch: it was the only way out. The story touches on self-discovery, self-love, and friendships along the way, which is much more practical and realistic than many of the young adult novels being put out.
Love Interests Curing Mental Illness
Although books like Niven’s gracefully discuss the outcomes of suicide, they are painfully walked over in Thirteen Reasons Why. From graphic suicide and self-harm chapters to drawn-out sexual assault imagery, Thirteen Reasons Why chooses to beat down readers with explicit and often unnecessary content. Still, even after immense negative press for Thirteen Reasons Why, there are countless other books with similar problematic portrayals of mental illness. One of these stories is My Heart and Other Black Holes by Jasmine Warga. Warga’s story follows two teens who both are planning their own suicides, which is already a fairly insensitive plot for an entire book, but the characters later fall in love, which rescues and saves them from their suicidal thoughts. All ends well, and they are cured of their mental illness, which is incredibly unrealistic, because young adults should not be taught that love will save them from everything bad in their lives.
Fahmidah adds that the book not only simplifies recovery, but it also romanticizes trauma by building the problematic narrative that falling in love will solve every problem. She says, “recovering from mental illness is not as easy as falling in love, and this narrative takes away the messy aspect of recovery. YA authors should be careful when conflating mental health issues with other archetypes such as romantic love” (Fahmidah). Using these storylines heightens the stereotype that sadness and depression can be completely solved through love. Storylines must be nuanced, as the audience for many of these books are impressionable young adults. Mental health must be portrayed in a better way instead of building plotlines off of stereotypes solely for the secondary trauma gain for audience members.
Trading My Heart and Other Black Holes for a story like The Perks of Being a Wallflower can give young adults a different view on how to ease symptoms of depression and mental illness. The Perks of Being a Wallflower is the typical coming-of-age story, but in addition to being confronted with drugs, relationships, and questioning his sexuality, Charlie, the main character faces post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms from childhood sexual abuse. Because of this Charlie goes to therapy and is hospitalized. Corbett develops the meaningfulness of a storyline including recovery: “While many novels, and even films, depict hospitalization in a negative manner, Charlie embraces the therapeutic road to recovery. Likewise, Charlie’s therapy and hospitalization are treated as methods to manage his illness and facilitate recovery” (Corbett). Therapy is seen to be incredibly positive in the story, as Charlie says “My psychiatrist is a very nice man. He’s much better than my last psychiatrist. We talk about things that I feel and think and remember” (Chbosky 103). In The Perks of Being a Wallflower, author Stephen Chbosky values authentic representations of individuals with mental illnesses, which is incredibly important in young adult novels, as a majority of readers are impressionable.
Many of these popular books that focus on mental illness fail to touch on self-discovery and self-love, which are both crucial to having a healthy mind. Many of these stories share that healing is often linear, when in reality, it never is. Recovering from mental illness is arduous and difficult, but realistic stories are what reinforce the truth of mental illness and create understanding amongst readers.
Fahmidah puts it perfectly when she says that “mental health conversations don’t need to revolve around love interests or quirky personality types. It’d be nice to see a more realistic portrayal of the protagonist struggling with therapy, self-love, friendships helping with the recovery process, and embarking on a trajectory of self-discovery, for a change. It’s more realistic and practical and most importantly, doesn’t adversely affect the readers” (Fahmidah). Many young adult books rely on the mental health struggles of the main characters to build an interesting plot. These characters are written off as quirky rather than struggling with mental illness symptoms. Their mental health is sensationalized by introducing a love interest, and everything is solved in the end through love, when in reality, this is rarely the case. Instead of building plotlines on mental illness, focusing on that aspect for readers’ interest, plots should be built upon the realities of mental illness, including the ugly truth, and how recovery isn’t always linear. After all, sensationalized mental illness should not be the only thing keeping readers engaged in a book.
Works Cited
Anderson, Laurie Halse. The Impossible Knife of Memory. New York: Penguin, 2014. Print. Chbosky, Stephen. The Perks of Being a Wallflower. New York: Pocket, 1999. p. 103. Corbett, Ashley. “Carpe Librum: Seize the (YA) Book.” English Journal Vol. 105, National Council of Teachers of English, 2016,
https://library.ncte.org/journals/ej/issues/v105-6/28662.
“Facts on Children’s Mental Health in America.” NAMI. The National Alliance on Mental Illness, n.d. Web. 15 Oct. 2014.
Fahmidah, Usraat. “The Fault in YA Books: Why Mental Health in YA Fiction Needs to Be Better.” The Tempest, 23 May 2021,
https://thetempest.co/2021/05/23/entertainment/mental-health-young-adult-books/. Richmond, Kia Jane. “Resources for Exploring Mental Illness through Young Adult Literature in the Classroom.” Mental Illness in Young Adult Literature: Exploring Real Struggles through Fictional Characters, Libraries Unlimited, an Imprint of ABC-CLIO, LLC, Santa Barbara, CA, 2019, pp. 195–201.