Anxiety about schoolwork. Post-lockdown fatigue. Social media anxiety.
Study after study shows America’s youth are in crisis, facing unprecedented mental health challenges that are particularly burdening teenage girls.One of the most striking data is that according to a recent report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, nearly 60% of girls in the United States Persistent sadness and hopelessness. The proportion of boys is also rising, with about half of them affected.
Adults have different theories about what’s going on, but what do teenagers think? Could social media be the root of their troubles? Are their male colleagues somehow immune, or are they part of the problem?
The Associated Press interviewed five girls in four states who agreed to publish only their first names because of the sensitive nature of the topics they discussed. The teens offered sobering and sometimes surprising insights.
“We’re so strong and we’ve been through so much,” said Amelia, a 16-year-old girl from Illinois who loves to sing and wants to be a surgeon.
She also has depression and anxiety. Like 13% of U.S. high school girls surveyed in the government report, she is a survivor of a suicide attempt. Hospitalization and treatment after the 2020 attempt helped. But Amelia has also faced bullying, toxic friendships and threats from boys at school who said she “deserved to be raped.”
More than 1 in 10 girls say they have been forced to have sex, the CDC report says, marking the first time the government’s regular survey has seen an increase. Sexual intimidation is just one of the burdens that teenage girls face.
“We’re trying to survive in a world that’s coming after us,” Amelia said.
Emma, an 18-year-old aspiring artist from Georgia who suffers from attention-deficit disorder and occasional depression, said worrying about schoolwork and college is a major source of stress.
“Lately, I’ve realized in myself and my friends how exhausted we all are by the pressures of the world, social issues, and where we’re going in the future,” Emma added. “All these things build up and fall apart.”
Fifteen-year-old Zoe was raised in Mississippi by a strict but loving single mother who pressured her to succeed in school and in life. She also reflects her feelings.
“School is so nerve-wracking and has a huge impact on your mental health that sometimes you don’t realize it until you’re in this space where you don’t know what to do,” Zoe said. She also experienced conflicts in her friendships, which led to her falling into deep depression and feeling uncomfortable about being the only black child in her class.
Several girls said they face additional pressure from society’s standards, which place too much emphasis on their appearance.
“A lot of people see women’s bodies and girls’ bodies as sexualized,” Emma says. “It’s just unbearable to have all these things forced on us.”
The #MeToo movement started when they were young but has intensified during the pandemic, making them hyper-sensitive to unwanted sexual advances.
Boys are less conscious, they suggest. The girls cited crude jokes, inappropriate touching, sexual threats and actual violence. Girls say feeling unwanted attention can be overwhelming.
“We are children and should not be sexualized or abused,” Amelia said.
Siya, an 18-year-old from New Jersey, said nearly every girl she knows has experienced sexual harassment. “That was normal for me,” she said.
“When you walk alone as a girl, you automatically find yourself in this vulnerable situation,” Siya says. “I think that’s very sad. I don’t know what it feels like to not feel that fear.”
Makenna, a high school senior in Mississippi, said she and her friends sometimes wear baggy clothes to hide their bodies, but that boys “comment on them no matter what.”
She said she has been in therapy for depression and grew up in a community where mental health is still sometimes stigmatized.
McKenna, who works with a teen health advocacy group, said that because of what previous generations endured, “expressing emotions is often not encouraged as much in the black community.” “We are expected to have hearts of steel,” she said. “But sometimes it’s okay not to be okay.”
Social media platforms contribute to this by focusing on superficial appearances and making perfectionism seem achievable. The girls say they are only part of the problem.
“Social media has completely changed the way we think and feel about ourselves, for better and for worse,” McKenna said.
She has felt pressure to be perfect when comparing herself to others online. But she also follows social media influencers who talk about her own mental health issues and make her feel like “it’s okay for me to feel sad and vulnerable,” she said.
Girls have historically been disproportionately affected by depression and anxiety. But these statistics, at least in part, reflect the fact that girls are often more likely than boys to talk about feelings and emotions, says Adolescent Medicine expert and spokesperson for the American Academy of Pediatrics. Dr. Hina Talib said.
Zoe, a 15-year-old from Mississippi, says boys have to maintain a “macho exterior” and are less likely to admit their insecurities.
“I think they may feel that way, but we just don’t see it,” she said.
a Research published in March In 2019, before the pandemic, about 60% of children hospitalized for mental health reasons were girls, according to a paper in the Journal of the American Medical Association. Ten years ago, the difference was tiny.
The coronavirus lockdown added a new dimension, pushing academic and social life online, Talib said. Some children, who entered the pandemic at a young age and are more mature, are socially awkward and unsure of how to navigate friendships and relationships. They live in a world plagued by school shootings, a rapidly changing climate, social and political unrest, and restrictions on reproductive health and transgender rights.
The CDC report released in February included teens surveyed in the fall of 2021, when the number of coronavirus infections and deaths in the U.S. was still high. Other data and anecdotal reports suggest that many teens continue to suffer.
“The pandemic is a huge part of their lives,” Talib said.
It may be unrealistic to expect children to be unharmed.
“It’s going to change generations,” she said.
___
Follow AP Medical Writer Lindsey Tanner at @LindseyTanner.
___
The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Education Media Group. AP is solely responsible for all content.