MENTAL HEALTH REPRESENTATION AND THE EMPATHETIC TURN IN TWENTY-FIRST-CENTURY YOUNG ADULT LITERATURE

Since the beginning of the twenty-first century, the representation of mental health in Anglophone Young Adult (YA) literature has moved from the margins to the center of literary attention. This article examines the development and major features of this trend, focusing on how contemporary YA fiction represents mental illness and encourages empathy among young readers. Holly Bourne’s Am I Normal Yet? (2015) serves as the primary case study, while The Immeasurable Depth of You (2023), Forever Is Now (2023), and The Memory of Light (2016) provide comparative examples. The article explores first-person narration, embodied storytelling, recovery narratives, and digital media as important narrative strategies. It argues that contemporary YA literature can contribute to mental health literacy by presenting psychological difficulties in relation to treatment, social stigma, identity, and everyday adolescent life. However, the article also considers the limitations of the “problem novel” approach and the danger of reducing complex characters to their diagnoses. Ultimately, the future of mental health writing in YA literature depends on balancing empathy and educational value with literary complexity.