Highlights

Starting the Conversation: Adolescent Mental Health

Adolescent Mental Health

As typical social and academic interaction screeched to a halt last year, the pandemic began to exacerbate already declining mental health. According to insurance reports, the number of mental health claims for U.S. adolescents and young adults doubled during the pandemic. These powerful speakers educate audiences on the importance of mental health by advocating for adolescents, working to destigmatize mental health treatment, and demonstrating the transformative power of communication and storytelling.

Kristin Henning

Professor of Law at Georgetown Univeristy and author of The Rage of Innocence

Kristin Henning Pitch

Kristin Henning is a nationally recognized legal scholar and activist in juvenile justice reform. As the Blume Professor of Law and Director of the Juvenile Justice Clinic and Initiative at Georgetown, she advocates for reform in the juvenile and criminal legal systems to fight the criminalization of Black adolescence. In her lectures and workshops, Henning examines how normal adolescent behaviors are distorted into crime and deviance among Black youth, who are denied the grace and tolerance society extends to their white peers. Drawing upon her experience working in D.C.’s juvenile courts, she examines the physical and psychological harms of constant discriminatory and aggressive police surveillance during adolescence – the last period of significant flexibility in the brain – and discusses the devastating long-term consequences criminalization has on the development of Black youth.

Dr. Cara Natterson

Pediatrician, consultant, speaker, and author of Decoding Boys

Cara Natterson Pitch

Navigating the global pandemic has been anxiety-inducing, disruptive, and upsetting, especially for adolescents. During these months of social distancing and online learning, New York Times-bestselling author and pediatrician Cara Natterson addresses the fears and worries many parents have about the mental impact of the coronavirus for parents and kids in her weekly newsletters. As the schools begin to move forward with in-person learning in the fall, Dr. Natterson guides them with COVID-19 health and safety plans. A leading voice in puberty and adolescent health, she talks to educators, corporations, parents, and students about how the coronavirus pandemic is affecting kids and how to navigate through puberty during this difficult time.

Chanel Miller

Artist, activist, and author of the New York Times bestseller Know My Name

Chanel Miller Know My Name
First known publicly as Emily Doe, artist and writer Chanel Miller is the survivor of the Stanford University sexual assault case that exposed the harsh reality of what many victims face. Her powerful victim impact statement inspired changes in California law and thousands of assault survivors wrote that her letter had given them the courage to speak up about their own experiences.In her memoir, Know My Name, Miller reclaims her identity and her narrative, turning pain into a declaration of power. Warm and poignant, Miller’s in-conversation events focus on personal narrative, writing, and empowerment, encouraging audiences to use creativity to help find their voice and process their experiences.

Ian Manuel

Advocate for criminal justice reform, poet, and motivational speaker

Ian Manuel Pitch2
The United Nations considers solitary confinement for more than fifteen days torture, but it was Ian Manuel’s condition for eighteen consecutive years, beginning when he was just fifteen. At age 13, Manuel was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole for attempted murder after his participation in a botched robbery, and he ultimately served 26 years before Bryan Stevenson’s Equal Justice Initiative was able to secure his release in 2016. Scientists have shown that the solitary confinement of adults, but especially of juveniles, can damage the brain, provoking panic, anxiety, depression, loss of control, and even suicide. In this frank and moving lecture, Manuel shares his experiences with these damaging circumstances, and the story of how he managed—through his faith and poetry—to endure them and survive.

Diane Shader Smith

Spokesperson for the bestselling book Salt in My Soul

BinaVeenataraman EarthDay

Diane Shader Smith is a dynamic speaker, writer, cystic fibrosis fundraiser and advocate for bioethics and phage therapy. After her daughter, Mallory Smith, died at age twenty-five from a superbug infection secondary to her cystic fibrosis, Shader Smith compiled and edited Mallory’s diary entries and had them published as Salt in My Soul: An Unfinished Life, detailing Mallory’s fight with cystic fibrosis, battle with mental health, and life as she kept a positive demeanor around her family and friends. Shader Smith has traveled the country speaking passionately and perceptively about her daughter’s writing, sharing profound insights about the hardships of living with chronic illness to help others suffering from anxiety, depression, body image issues, and the troubles of coming of age.

Carlos Andrés Gómez

Poet, speaker, educator and advocate for healthy masculinity

Carlos Andres Gomez pitch

Carlos Andrés Gómez is a Colombian American spoken word poet and author of the coming-of-age memoir Man Up: Reimagining Modern Manhood. Drawing from his eclectic expertise and statistics on graduation rates, employment, and teen and young-adult suicide, Gómez seeks to reverse these ominous trends by sharing the lessons that he has learned. He reveals the true cost of squelching one’s emotions and teaches his audience how to reimagine masculinity. In sought-after and captivating programs. Gómez is frequently brought to schools and organizations to craft a keynote or performance to promote mental wellness and emotional resilience.

 Contact us for more information about speakers for Adolescent Mental Health.

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Penguin Random House Speakers Bureau