It might look different than a bump on the head or scraped knee, but mental health is just as important to monitor and manage as physical injuries. Sometimes, it’s a matter of knowing what resources you have access to at home when you notice signs your child may be struggling. Here are some tools to help parents start conversations about mental health with their child or teen and normalize prevention and treatment of mental health issues.
‘What To Do’ Workbook Series
This series from the American Psychological Association’s Magination Press helps kids navigate complicated feelings as they arise. Guiding ages 6 to 12 through cognitive-behavioral techniques often used in treatment of various psychological issues, the books use easy-to-understand and relatable scenarios to address issues like anxiety, anger and perfectionism with practical solutions in an interactive kids’ workbook format.
While kids may not always understand what is behind their feelings, they can recognize common feelings, such as having your temper flare up, getting worried about a test or friend at school or the pressure behind making mistakes. When left alone, these feelings can affect kids’ mental health.
Books like “What To Do When You Panic” and “What To Do When the News Scares You” begin with the “what if” situation and focus on coping techniques, with additional information shared with parents.
Topics in the series range from universal scenarios like worrying too much to more specific ones like fear surrounding climate change. Kids take in what they hear around them, and they can become stressed or afraid if they don’t understand what’s happening in the world—or if they do, and feel like the burden is on them to make things better.
Find these and other helpful books from the American Psychological Association at apa.org/pubs/magination.
Hack Your Happiness (A Podcast for and by Teens)
Kids and teens don’t always think their parents know best, so it’s helpful to also hear from their peers. And that’s easily achievable with teen-created podcast Hack Your Happiness. In each episode, the Canadian Korngut sisters Mercedes, 17, and Anastasia, 15, speak with successful and inspiring guests such as Olympians, bestselling authors, Oscar winners and more to share good advice and life hacks with parents and teens to help them find more happiness in everyday life. The goal is to also prompt meaningful conversations between parents and teens with stories that span generations.
According to the sisters’ website, their podcast was in the top 15% of video podcasts on Spotify in 2024. It currently has a five-star rating on the same platform and
is available on all major podcast platforms.
‘Octopus Moon,’ by Bobbie Pyron
A good book can help children process their feelings through characters and open up the door for conversations. Nancy Paulsen Books released “Octopus Moon,” a middle grade novel using the firsthand experience of its author to convey a child’s experience with depression, this spring. In the story—presented in verse—Pearl identifies a “Dark Fog” she has kept at bay until the start of fifth grade made things too overwhelming to manage it. Readers will see Pearl’s journey back to herself through therapy tackling “one Impossible Thing per day” alongside support from family and friends.
According to Yale Medicine, about 3.2% of American children and adolescents have diagnosed depression and even 2-year-olds can experience depression, so resources such as these could be relevant for your family.
Another resource to keep in mind for kids and teens who may have depression is The Jed Foundation (JED)’s YouTube series “Mind Matters.” JED, a nonprofit focused on teen mental health and suicide prevention, pairs one of its clinical experts with content creators kids may follow to address a variety of topics from loneliness and anger to eating disorders and ADHD. Families can find the series at youtube.com/@jedfoundation/videos.
‘Screenagers’ + A Safe Video Viewing Guide
More than ever, as technology evolves, kids and teens are getting exposed to more and more media. What was true nearly 10 years ago does not necessarily hold up today, so Dr. Delaney Ruston (host of The Screenagers Podcast) and her producing partner (filmmaker and journalist Lisa Tabb) released a 2025 update of their 2016 documentary “Screenagers: Growing Up in the Digital Age,” which at the time was the first documentary to address social media’s effect on brain development.
The update includes new interviews, practical solutions for parents in addressing issues from media use, as well as new research findings.
“Fast-forward ten years, and screen time has not only taken over downtime but time for outdoor play, physical activity, face-to-face social interaction, extracurricular interests and brain space for learning—all crucial to adolescents’ healthy development,” Ruston says in a news release. “Depression and anxiety among our youth has skyrocketed, and eating disorders are on the rise for middle school -age girls.”
With that in mind, as an additional resource for parents, the American Psychological Association has a healthy video viewing guide for parents of teens, including how to help teens navigate influencer content, AI-generated videos and advertising. Find it at healthyviewing.apa.org.
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