I attended my very first conference-The Bookseller Children’s Conference 2022-a couple of weeks ago. How exciting! I enjoyed a range of talks on topics surrounding children’s books and publishing.

The talk I found most interesting was Anthony Kessel’s Mental Health In Young People:A Growing Issue and What Children’s Books Can Do To Help. Anthony spoke about the mental health of adolescents and mentioned some startling statistics. The presentation included how books can promote positive well-being and support young people’s mental health.  I naturally gravitated towards this talk as mental health is a topic close to my heart. I was overwhelmed with joy to hear this topic being discussed especially regarding children’s books. I currently work in the mental health third sector, so I knew this was a talk that I was going to enjoy!

Throughout his talk, Anthony states that mental health within young people is a ‘huge issue‘. He urges the audience to look at their lives and asks them if they personally know any young person that has been affected by mental health struggles. He discloses that he has. This gets the audience not only attending the conference passively but actively involving themselves and self-reflecting. He uses this reflection to examine the prevalence of mental health in young people. I thought the way he engaged with the audience to get the message through of how frequently youths face mental health struggles was extremely powerful. He used audiences’ personal experiences to hit home the issue.

As the talk goes on, striking statistics present that by the age of 24, 75% of adults have had their mental health struggles already established and within that group, as many as 50-75% have had their mental health problems exist throughout childhood. He follows on to say that intervening earlier and supporting young people will result in a higher likelihood of better mental health outcomes.

Anthony then goes on to state that books can encourage positive thinking. He divulges that books can be a distraction from negative thoughts and that storylines involving coping with life’s challenges can generate a more positive mental health promotion. His new book series-Don’t Doubt The Rainbow-includes approaches for readers to better understand how the mind works with some tools laced in to help improve their own mental state. I believe what Anthony does in his series is very important as I personally have found that mechanisms and knowledge of mental health can be powerful resources to utilize when struggling.

This talk had a huge impact on me. I got thinking about just how vital books are to children, especially mental health portrayals within storylines, and that publishers need to keep pushing mental health promotion toward children. I thought this talk was poignant and embraced awareness of mental health in adolescents which is crucial, especially in a post-pandemic world. A statistic according to The World Health Organisation (2019) is that one in seven 10-19-year-olds will experience a mental health disorder. This is astronomically high. Therefore, I believe that the younger children learn about mental health and ways to aid themselves, the more supported they will feel if they do encounter mental health struggles. This knowledge and nurture can be done through books as Anthony Kessel indicates in this necessary talk.

Photo by Debby Hudson on Unsplash