Youth mental health,
in their own words.

This project grew from the loss of my young neighbor, Theo Ferrara, to suicide in 2022. He was 14.

In the middle of that community grief, I was already thinking about how I could use my work as a filmmaker to help our community heal. Then I drove past a school in Norway, Maine and saw a banner on the fence: “Hard things happen, but these things do not define us.” That’s when I knew I needed to make something public.

I later learned the banner came from Resilience Matters To Me, a community-based research project supported by Healthy Oxford Hills, the MaineHealth Institute for Research and many local partners. It led me to the Maine Resilience Building Network — now Maine Youth Thriving — and I attended their 2023 summit to learn what actually helps young people feel they matter and belong. I asked MYT to partner on this project soon after, and a donation from Sara Gideon for Maine made it possible.

I’m grateful to Stacey Jenkins, LCPC, who helped host a youth advisory group at Stellar Pediatrics in the summer of 2024. The teens agreed on what would reach their peers: messaging that was positive, PSA-style, youth-led and youth-centered, and delivered straight to camera. Many felt particularly drawn to being part of a project that was “positive” and could have impact. Their input shaped the on-camera interview prompts we used when we filmed at the Freeport Library this year.

I’m also grateful to Terry Stackhouse and the team at WMTW for their continued focus on teen mental health.

These are their voices. I hope they bring more compassion into our communities.

Suzi Pond — Founder, Redbird Media Group