Graphic Novel "Feeling Weird" Launches
Graphic Novel "Feeling Weird" Launches
Supporters gathered at the Goodwill Centre in downtown London in late September to celebrate the publication of a new graphic novel for high school students to help them talk about mental health. Feeling Weird, a graphic novel that “acts as a starting point for young people to share with educators, parents or health professionals the “weird” feelings they have,” according to co-writer Christopher Sweeney. The story features high school students doing their best to get by while facing mental, emotional, and other challenges.
The book comes from a collaboration between mental health organizations Mind Your Mind, a ConnexOntario program that works to improve the mental health and wellness of 14-29 year olds, and Crazy About Mental Health, a London-based organization that works to eradicate the stigma around mental health and make it as common and comfortable as possible for people to speak about their mental health. Thanks to the involvement of Mind Your Mind, the writers were able to hold sessions with students from Beal Secondary School to get input directly from the audience of the book.
Crazy About Mental Health started up in 2011, with some of London Community Foundation’s donors among the first people to fund the organization as it embarked on its first research project in collaboration with mental health delivery partners in the city. “We were seeking to determine the gaps in [youth mental health] delivery, and perhaps find a means to fill some of them,” said Crazy About Mental Health’s Shelly Siskind at the Feeling Weird launch.
When the Foundation launched its Community Vitality Grants Program in 2012, Crazy About Mental Health was the recipient of an $80,000 grant to help establish the organization and set it up to start filling some of the gaps they’d previously identified. In their plan to destigmatize mental health amongst youth was the release of a graphic novel. By 2018 they’d established a partnership with Mind Your Mind, who introduced the organization to the eventual co-authors Chris Sweeney and Sean Donaghey, and who provided resources during the book's development.
After delays caused by the pandemic, the novel, which Shelly says “will speak to high school students in a way that they understand,” is now in the process of finding its way into schools across Ontario so its readers will feel less “weird” about their mental health. As part of the campaign to get the book into schools, Chris and Sean (who was a high school teacher himself when work on the book commenced) will be presenting Feeling Weird at Reading For The Love Of It, a literacy conference in Toronto, for educators, librarians, and school programs to spread the news about the resource being available.
This unique project, made possible by the dedication of the people involved in it, speaks to the power of what grassroots organizations can achieve with the right partnerships in place.