mental health essay contest 2022

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Speaking Up About Mental Health

National essay contest.

SUBMIT YOUR ESSAY The contest is open to high school students ages 16-18

PROMOTION TOOLKIT Help spread the word with social media and email tools

December 1, 2023

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January 16, 2024

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Mental health is an important part of overall health across all life stages. However, far too often, symptoms are not addressed or recognized among teens.

Speaking Up About Mental Health is an essay contest that challenges high school students ages 16-18 to raise awareness of mental health. The contest gives students a platform to share ways to eliminate and/or reduce mental health stigma faced by young people, especially in diverse communities.

This contest is soliciting essays that:

• Discuss ways to eliminate and/or reduce mental health stigma faced by young people, especially in diverse communities
• Share resilience and coping strategies to overcome mental health issues such as social isolation and loneliness, depression, and anxiety
• Address mental health stigma
• Encourage conversations about mental health, social media, and/or technology
• Suggest school policies or practices that could help reduce stigma
• Describe barriers to mental health treatment
• Cover other areas of concern to individuals and their communities with respect to mental health

Get details on contest rules and submit your entry on Challenge.gov

Promotion toolkit : Help promote the Speaking Up About Mental Health essay contest

The contest is led by:

National Institute of Mental Health

National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities

Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development

Page updated Jan. 23, 2024

September 2022: NIH Announces Winners of High School Mental Health Essay Contest

2022 Essay Awardees

2019 Essay Awardees

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Entries Due Soon: Mental Health Essay Contest for High School Students

Two weeks left to enter national essay contest exploring mental health.

The deadline for entries is April 30, 2022.

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Speak Up for Mental Health

Essay Contest for Teens Under Way

Know a teen with something to say about mental health? “Speaking Up About Mental Health! This Is My Story,” a national essay challenge cosponsored by NIMHD, NIMH and NICHD, aims to start conversations about mental health and encourage young people to seek help for mental health issues. U.S. high school students ages 16-18 are invited to submit a short essay. 

Topics may include resilience, ending stigma, improving communication among peers and adults and more. Submissions will be accepted through Apr. 30. Winners will be announced in September. Multiple winners will be chosen to receive cash prizes. For details, visit https://www.nimhd.nih.gov/programs/edu-training/mental-health-essay-contest /.

Mental Health America of the Northern Suburbs

Annual Essay and Multimedia Contest

Since 2003, MHANS has held an annual contest for youth on a topic related to mental health. In 2013, what had been a writing contest became an Essay and Multimedia Contest, as we encouraged youth to use artwork as a way to express themselves. In 2018, we opened the Contest to Middle/Junior School students, who are judged in a separate age category.

Since 2013, we began using what participants told us, analyzing the submissions for common themes and creating anonymized data, which we have subsequently used to create educational programming, brochures, and social media posts – all designed to provide information on what teens think and experience around a variety of topics related to mental health and wellness. The “Teens Speak Out” series, which has expanded into “Teens and Tweens Speak Out” since the Contest began taking admissions from Middle/Junior school students, is now an integral part of our annual community education programming.

2024 Essay and Multimedia Contest

Our Annual Essay and Multimedia Contest is now open for submissions from students 6th-12th grade. Our annual contest is designed to empower youth to share their concerns, ideas, and solutions. Cash prizes up to $500 are available. Submissions must be sent on or before March 15, 2024.

Using the questions below as a prompt, either write an essay or create a piece of artwork.

Prompt: Social Media and Its Impact on Mental Health & Relationships

How has social media affected your mental health? How does social media contribute to or hinder your relationships?

Entries can be submitted in any language !

Essays: Tell a powerful story in 250 to 500 words, using personal experiences.

Art/Videos: Tell a powerful story through original art and include an artist statement. Can be submitted on a poster, digital media, a 1-2 minute video, or any other creative form.

Entry Instructions:

Do not include your name or school on your essay or media. Instead, attach a separate sheet and include your name, email, address, school, grade, and teacher’s name.

Mail submissions to: Mental Health America of the Northern Suburbs, c/o Turning Point, 8324 Skokie Blvd., Skokie, IL 60077

OR Email to: [email protected]

All personal information is kept confidential. Entries become property of Mental Health America of the Northern Suburbs (MHANS) and may be published with the author’s permission. Winners will be selected by a panel of judges.

Eligibility:

Students submitting essays should be in grades 6 through 12 living going to school in Illinois. Students do not need to be US citizens or have legal status in the US to be eligible to submit essays.

MHANS Essay Contest Winners Ceremony

On April 28th at 2PM at the Morton Grove Public Library in Baxter Auditorium we will be honoring the essay contest winners! If you win, you will be contacted with a formal invitation.

Questions? Email [email protected]

We thank the 2024 Essay and Multimedia Contest Sponsor, Yellowbrick .

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Being Jewish

Teen Essay Contest: How’s Your Mental Health?

We live in complicated times. For teenagers experiencing and/or worried about g un violence, antisemitism, Covid, the impact of social media, the war in Ukraine, climate change and many other issues, the toll can be devastating.

Studies in recent years have shown an unprecedented level of anxiety, sadness and hopelessness among American youth, a trend that has gotten worse since the Covid pandemic began.  

We want to hear about those experiences. To that end, Hadassah Magazine  and  jGirls+ Magazine ,  an online publication by and for self-identifying Jewish girls, young women and nonbinary teens, announce their third annual teen essay contest, which this year asks:

Tell us a personal story about an issue that has affected your mental health.  

We are interested in personal narratives about how and why your mental well-being has been impacted by experiences related to your personal life and/or the world around you. And If you wish, share how you are coping with your mental health challenges.  

The contest is open to self-identifying Jewish girls, young women and nonbinary teens between the ages of 13 and 19 who reside in the United States, the District of Columbia and the State of Israel, except where prohibited by law. Deadline for submission is October 30, 2022.  

The winner will receive a $300 educational scholarship, the winning essay will be published in Hadassah Magazine , both in print and online, and in jGirls+ Magazine . And a one-year subscription to Hadassah Magazine is part of the prize as well.  

For details and guidelines click here . For the entry form click here .  

[…] by and for self-identifying Jewish girls, young women and nonbinary teens, announce their third annual teen essay contest, which this year asks: “Tell us a personal story about an issue that has affected your mental […]

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Teens are talking about mental health

High schoolers' stories give a glimpse into the national crisis.

Adolescence can be a complicated time, especially for mental health, and some teens want their communities to do more in response.

The prevalence of mental health issues is hard to measure, but federal data show how widespread the challenges are. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said we need to address threats to mental health in young people—especially adolescents.

More than one third (37%) of high schoolers in the United States reported experiencing poor mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a 2021 CDC study . Almost half (44%) of high schoolers reported feeling persistently sad or hopeless in the last year. Some of these feelings were also linked to experiences of racism, social stigma around gender and sexual identity, and sexual violence.

"I was also having issues with my friendships at school and an increased level of stress when it came time for tests, projects, and other assessments…the feeling of isolation, lack of appetite, and absolute hatred of school were not normal." –Morgan, New Jersey

Studies like these can help shed light on issues that teens may be hesitant or unable to discuss with parents, doctors , and school staff.

Stigma and a lack of information or access to care also keep many teens from getting help. But sharing personal stories about mental health can offer encouragement and connection. This can help teens feel like they are not alone. That’s why NIH asked high schoolers to describe these challenges in their own words for the 2022 Speaking Up About Mental Health! essay contest.

The contest was sponsored by the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities (NIMHD), and the Eunice Kennedy Shriver  National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD). They wanted to start conversations around youth mental health and highlight different aspects of this national health crisis.

In their essays, many students talked about feeling lost, embarrassed, or frustrated by their mental health struggles. Others wrote about going from being confident in early childhood to feeling alone or unseen in adolescence.

NIH-funded researcher Tamar Mendelson, M.A., Ph.D., Bloomberg Professor of American Health and Director for the Center for Adolescent Health at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, says that’s not surprising. Depression rates tend to increase around puberty, especially among girls but also in boys. Dr. Mendelson said this can be caused by a combination of hormonal changes, new social relationships, and new pressures from academic, athletic, and other activities.

"For many Asian American youths, getting help for mental health can be hindered by stereotypes.  Asian American boys, in particular, may not seek therapy since their cultures expect them to be more resilient than girls. After all, as the older brother, how can I let my little sister know when I am not feeling well emotionally?" –Evan, Texas

“Young people who are feeling overwhelmed or are not sure how to cope with emotions may be more likely to use substances to kind of help with that,” Dr. Mendelson said. Such substances could include alcohol, tobacco, or prescription or illicit drugs, for example.

Puberty is also when many young people become more aware of their sexual orientations and gender identities. For some, this can lead to being unaccepted or bullied. Rates of substance use and misuse also tend to increase during puberty.

In addition to navigating the typical stressors that teens face, more recently they also had to cope with the COVID-19 pandemic and related family losses or financial struggles. They’ve experienced or witnessed racial- and identity-based discrimination, gun violence, political unrest, natural disasters, and climate change. These challenges coupled with other risk factors, including some parenting styles, can lead to mental health issues such as anxiety and depression.

Even though environmental triggers have changed over time, adolescent anxiety was rising even before the pandemic.

Michele Ybarra, Ph.D., an adjunct professor of mental health at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and also an NIH-supported researcher, said that not long ago, it was widely believed that youth could not have depression because people thought, “What do [they] have to be depressed about?”

"Schools are places where students should feel safe and comfortable enough to ask for help. By using simple technology and dedicating time toward impactful mental health screening, schools can truly serve students and assist them in living happier, healthier lives." –Huda, North Carolina

But in the last several decades, Dr. Ybarra said, mental health professionals have realized that depression can happen to anyone at any age.

Several students wrote about schools with limited, outdated, or no education on the topic. Some said they could not speak to a therapist or school counselor when they needed to.

The issue is worse for students in rural areas , in schools with limited financial resources, or who need culturally appropriate care such as bilingual mental health information.

But digital tools can connect youth to information about their mental health. For example, Dr. Ybarra said, the rise of telehealth and teletherapy since the pandemic has helped increase access for some.

Dr. Ybarra said that while technology (including social media) can have both positive and negative effects on mental health, it can also be a force for good. The nature of relationships has changed in the internet age, and connecting online is natural for adolescents . Options like crisis lines or online therapy can get help to teens quickly.

Multiple students said when they could not find resources from their schools or communities, they started their own. Some also said their experiences have inspired them to study mental health and treatments after high school.

One student said they began volunteering for a teen crisis hotline after their cousin used the same service for help. The student also joined a youth advisory group for their state governor’s office and offered help as a peer-to-peer counselor at their school.

“My passion towards becoming a researcher on psychiatric disorders is stronger than ever,” they wrote.

The way people talk about mental illness could also be better, one student wrote . They preferred the phrase “living” with a mental illness rather than “suffering” from one. This small change in language signals it’s possible for people with such conditions to live happy and fulfilling lives. This student also said their own school began marking mental health-related absences as excused and holding an annual mental health week to encourage open conversation.

It’s too early to tell what the long-term effects of the past few years will have on youth mental health. But Dr. Ybarra said some teens have become more resilient since the pandemic began.

“I don’t think this generation is doomed in any way,” she said. “Several kids have said [the pandemic] really gave them the time to better understand themselves, they better understand their sexuality … Other kids took on new hobbies, and they learned how to do new things. Maybe they gave themselves permission to not talk to that toxic person in their lives.” While there’s no denying the pandemic has been a stressful experience, Dr. Ybarra’s impression is that most teens have come out the other side with perspective and an ability to thrive.

“This is good news. It also means that we need to be diligent about identifying teens who continue to struggle and connect them to services,” she said.

If you think a teen is experiencing a mental health crisis, the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline is a national, 24/7 hotline  that can connect you with a trained crisis counselor by phone or online chat. Call or text 988 to connect to a trained crisis counselor 24/7 or use the live online chat option. TTY users can contact the Lifeline via their preferred relay service or by dialing 711, then 988.   

By the numbers

According to the centers for disease control and prevention, in 2021:.

• Asian (non-Hispanic): 64%
• Black (non-Hispanic): 55%
• Multiracial (non-Hispanic): 55%
• Hispanic or Latino: 42%
• American Indian/Alaska Native (non-Hispanic): 27%
• Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander (non-Hispanic): 55%
• White (non-Hispanic): 23%
• 18% of female high schoolers and 5% of male high schoolers experienced sexual violence, up from 15% and 4%, respectively, in 2017
• Up from 41% and 21%, respectively, in 2017
• 14% of LGBQ+ high schoolers and 7% of heterosexual students did not go to school because of safety concerns

*Data set did not account for gender identity, although previous research has shown that transgender youth experience more stigma and are more likely to have more suicidal thoughts or behaviors compared to their peers.

NIH-supported research on adolescent mental health

Greater engagement in gender-sexuality alliances (gsas) and gsa characteristics predict youth empowerment and reduced mental health concerns.

This study, supported by NIMHD, focused on the connections between sexual and gender minority youth’s involvement in extracurricular activities and their mental health. Researchers focused on gender-sexuality alliances (also sometimes called gay-straight alliances), which are school-based clubs to bring young people together to discuss shared issues or interests. Learn more about this study .

Understanding Bystanders for Self-Directed Violence Prevention: A Prospective National Study Highlighting Marginalized Youth and Young Adults

Self-directed violence refers to anything a person does intentionally that can cause injury or death to themselves. This study will examine the effectiveness of programs that train youth to be “active bystanders” and help those in danger of self-directed violence. Researchers will survey approximately 5,000 participants ages 13 to 22, recruited via social media, about the impacts of these bystander training programs in real-world situations. Read more about this study .

Strategic Framework for Addressing Youth Mental Health Disparities

This plan outlines research studies and other activities by NIMH, NICHD, and NIMHD to reduce mental health disparities among underserved and underrepresented youth by 2031. Some of the plan’s goals are to develop culturally appropriate mental health interventions for youth and parents and to research co-occurring mental illness among young people in groups that have been marginalized. Read more about the framework .

Alternative accessible version (pdf)

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention ; Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report Supplement, Vol. 71, No. 3 ; CDC report shows concerning increases in sadness and exposure to violence among teen girls and LGBQ+ youth ; LGBQ+ Teens

May 16, 2023

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Mental Health Essay Contest

April 18, 2022 - The National Institute of Mental Health and a coalition of other organizations are sponsoring the “ Speaking up About Mental Health! This is My Story ” national essay challenge for high school students ages 16-18. 

The contest aims to start conversations about mental health and encourage young people to seek help for mental health issues. Topics may include resilience, ending stigma, improving communication among peers and adults, and more.  Submissions will be accepted through Saturday, Apr. 30, and winners will be announced in September 2022. Multiple winners will be chosen to receive cash prizes. More contest details are available here .

Concurso de ensayos sobre salud mental El Instituto Nacional de Salud Mental y una coalición de otras organizaciones están patrocinando un concurso nacional de ensayos llamado « Speaking up About Mental Health! This is My Story » para estudiantes de escuela preparatoria de 16 a 18 años. 

El concurso tiene como objetivo iniciar conversaciones sobre la salud mental y exhortar a los jóvenes a buscar ayuda para cuestiones de salud mental. Los temas podrían incluir, entre otros, la resiliencia, terminar con el estigma y mejorar la comunicación entre compañeros y adultos.  Las solicitudes se aceptarán hasta el sábado, 30 de abril y los ganadores serán anunciados en septiembre de 2022. Se elegirán varios ganadores para recibir premios en efectivo. Obtenga más detalles sobre el concurso aquí .

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Opinion Michelle Goldberg

Women Have Gotten ‘Too Mouthy,’ Says This Republican Senate Candidate

Credit... Yasmin Yassin for The New York Times

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By Michelle Goldberg

Opinion Columnist

• May 24, 2024

Royce White, a Black former pro basketball player who led protests in Minneapolis after the murder of George Floyd, made his first appearance on “The Alex Jones Show” about two years ago. As he spoke, it became clear that the deep suspicion of government authority that inspired him to march in the summer of 2020 had carried him into Jones’s paranoid orbit. “We all know when the time comes and authoritarianism is at its peak, the police and the troops who just take marching orders are going to be the ones forcibly vaccinating you and your kids,” he said. Jones, a purveyor of conspiracy theories about everything from 9/11 to the murder of children at Sandy Hook Elementary School, was thrilled by their conversation. “You’re awesome, you’re dead-on, and we’re going to learn a lot from you,” he enthused.

In the 2010s, White was known for fighting to get the N.B.A. to accommodate his generalized anxiety disorder, a public stand that won him journalistic admiration even as his athletic career faltered. (The Nation’s Dave Zirin called him a “ mental health revolutionary ” and compared him to Billie Jean King and Muhammad Ali.) Then in 2020 he was hailed as a rising civil rights activist. “Royce White Towers Above the Minneapolis Protests, and Thousands Are Looking Up to Him,” said a Washington Post headline . “If Donald Trump continues to threaten us with the military, this will continue to escalate,” White said on CNN, adding that people were “tired of tyranny.”

Yet White, distrustful of established power, also chafed under the constraints of what seemed to him like liberal orthodoxy. He was drawn, he told Jones, to “people who the establishment and the corporatocracy tried to silence, whether it be you, whether it be Minister Louis Farrakhan, whether it be a guy now like Robert Malone” — a major anti-vaccine influencer — “or a Steve Bannon.”

By 2023, White was not just appearing on Jones’s show but also guest-hosting it. Bannon, Trump’s first chief strategist, had become a mentor to him, delighting in his unvarnished machismo. “Women have become too mouthy,” White said on Bannon’s “War Room” podcast. “As the Black man in the room, I’ll say that.” Elsewhere, White denounced the “Jewish lobby” and the “Jewish elite” and called Israel “the linchpin of the new world order.” He described the L.G.B.T.Q. movement as “Luciferian” and wrote that it’s “the brainchild of radical feminists and their cucked men.” In 2020 he wrote in Tulsi Gabbard, then a Democratic congresswoman, for president, but is now fully behind Trump.

White’s evolution might seem familiar to those who’ve followed the journeys of onetime progressive icons like Naomi Wolf and Russell Brand into what Naomi Klein called, in her great book “Doppelganger,” the “mirror world” of the far right. More than anyone else, though, White demonstrates how that mirror world is consuming the Republican Party, because on Saturday, delegates at Minnesota’s Republican convention voted overwhelmingly to endorse him for Senate. Discussing his victory on his podcast, “Please, Call Me Crazy,” White thanked Jones and his Infowars website. “A lot of Infowars fans in the Republican Party delegation there on Saturday at the convention,” White said.

Even more central to White’s triumph was Bannon, who introduced him at the convention via video. After Trump lost the presidency in 2020, Bannon urged his listeners to seize control of the Republican Party by flooding it at the precinct level, and all over the country they responded in droves. “Suddenly, people who had never before showed interest in party politics started calling the local G.O.P. headquarters or crowding into county conventions, eager to enlist as precinct officers,” ProPublica reported in 2021. White’s endorsement looks like a fruit of that strategy.

“Right now, there’s a highly motivated core of Alex Jones, Steve Bannon-esque Republicans” in Minnesota, said Michael Brodkorb, a former deputy chair of the state Republican Party who despairs of its MAGA transformation. They’re the ones who are “showing up on beautiful Saturday afternoons, spending, you know, hundreds and hundreds of dollars to attend these conventions.”

On Wednesday evening, I spoke to White for almost an hour and a half. He insisted that he was not antisemitic because his comments were only about Jewish elites, who he said exploited ordinary Jews. He was eager to talk about central banking, the C.I.A. and the growing disillusionment among young Black men with the Democratic Party. It was harder to draw him out on the subject of his political transformation, because he insisted he hasn’t changed that much. In 2020, he pointed out, one of the marches he led was to the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis; he’s long seen the Fed as the root of many evils. During the Black Lives Matter demonstrations, he said, a common refrain was that “the whole system is guilty.” As he sees it, the MAGA movement represents a similarly sprawling indictment of the status quo. The “nationalist populist movement that has bubbled up around and with Donald Trump and other individuals like Steve Bannon rejects how corporate America and the corporate elite and the permanent political class has operated for a number of decades,” he said.

He bristled when I asked about Jones, whose photograph is on his campaign website. “Why is it that white liberal women in this country are so hellbent on telling Black men in America what we should and shouldn’t think?” he said. At other times he spoke with a sort of pitying condescension about my naïveté. “You may not know as a writer, but I guarantee you that your higher-ups, they know exactly how dangerous I am intellectually,” he said. “They know exactly how dangerous I am politically.” He continued, invoking Malcolm X, “Any time a Black man steps up who is competent on the issues philosophically, politically, spiritually, socially, economically, they start to plan how they’re going to kill him.”

White isn’t guaranteed to be the Republican nominee for Senate; he still needs to win the primary in August. But Brodkorb doubts he’ll face a serious challenger. “Royce White won with 67 percent of the vote on Saturday,” Brodkorb said. “The party’s going to have an obligation in some ways to support the endorsement process.” Anyone who takes White on will therefore have to go up against both the establishment and the insurgent wing of the party. And if a challenger succeeds in wresting the nomination from him, that person’s reward will be an uphill contest against Amy Klobuchar, who has, according to one recent poll , a 54 percent approval rating in the state.

If he is the Republican nominee, White will probably be a gift to Democrats this cycle, particularly at a time when Republicans hope to exploit liberal divides over Israel. But while the mainstreaming of figures like White may be useful to Democrats in the short term, in the long term it’s a sign of a collapsed consensus about the nature of reality that bodes ill for liberal democracy. “When looking at the mirror world, it can seem obvious that millions of people have given themselves over to fantasy, to make-believe, to playacting,” wrote Klein. “The trickier thing, the uncanny thing, really, is that’s what they see when they look at us.” It’s certainly what White sees. “It never dawned on the liberals or the liberal institutions or the staunch base that maybe they’re being herded and shepherded into a sort of groupthink,” he told me. Trumpism once felt to him tyrannical. Now he experiences it as freedom. The trouble is he’s not alone.

Michelle Goldberg has been an Opinion columnist since 2017. She is the author of several books about politics, religion and women’s rights, and was part of a team that won a Pulitzer Prize for public service in 2018 for reporting on workplace sexual harassment.

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