YA Mental Health Panel at YA NovCon 2017

On January 27 and 28, I had the privilege of taking part in the San Mateo County Libraries 2nd annual YA NovCon along with a star-studded line-up of YA authors including Gretchen McNeil, Neal Shusterman, Andrew Smith, Jessica Brody, Mariko Tamaki, Alexis Bass, Martha Brockenbrough, I.W. Gregorio, Stephanie Kuehn, Sara Elizabeth Santana, Stacey Lee, Gordon Jack, Lindsay Holland, and B.T. Gottfred. On Friday, we all visited area high schools and juvenile detention facilities. And on Saturday, we held panels and author Q&A sessions with about 200 people. I sat on a censorship in YA panel, and most notably had the honor to speak on a mental health panel along with Neil Shusterman, National Book Award-winning-author of CHALLENGER DEEP based on his son's struggle with schizophrenia, and Stephanie Kuehn, Psychologist and author of several fictional psychological studies such as CHARM AND STRANGE, DELICATE MONSTERS, and THE SMALLER EVIL. We were joined by Rocio Cornejo representing NAMI (National Alliance on Mental Illness) and Rebecca Bucher, mental health coordinator for several San Mateo schools, who moderated. Here is the whole thing as taped by Millbrae Community Television: