For the longest time it was taboo to talk about mental health issues, much more so to admit that you were dealing with mental health issues of your own, or to admit that you needed help for hem. Lately there has been more transparency by people who were living with and working through anxiety and depression and that has been a step towards normalizing conversations about mental health.

I follow Adam Silvera and Gemma Correll's social media and knew about their struggles, but it was interesting to learn about other authors and their personal struggles. Perhaps my favorite thing about the book were the episodes that tacked how mental illness is portrayed in pop culture.

I can definitely tell why this book was honored by the Schneider Family Book Award committee in 2019. Jensen and her contributors take the reader on a journey through different lives and shows the humanity behind mental illness.

I will definitely recommend this book to students in my classroom. I think these stories are important to help end the stigma surrounding mental health. Many of my students will find themselves reflected at some point in this book.

This collection of stories was truly amazing. It covers a breadth that I've not seen before, delving into the more common mental illnesses of anxiety and depression, covering those less well known, and shining a much needed light on those are most misunderstood. This is reaffirming for anyone living with a mental illness and provides a window for those lucky enough to live without one. Pitch perfect for teens, but written for everyone. This should be essential reading.

Kelly Jensen has compiled an anthology full of varying stories about mental illness. This book won the Schneider award for books good for families.

The variety of essays in this book allows all readers to see a bit of themselves in the stories represented and also get a glimpse at what life is like for others suffering and existing with a wide range of mental health issues. A strong follow up to Here We Are, this is a must purchase for YA collections!

Incredibly powerful. I felt this one deeply, and I can't encourage everyone to read this enough, regardless of whether mental health struggles is something you've dealt with.

I enjoyed this so much and would highly recommend this book to anyone who is interested on the topic of mental health. It helps to bring in real voices about their experiences with mental health. It was a interesting and heartbreaking read, especially as a psychology major with a background on different mental health issues. I loved how Kelly Jensen was able to bring in a large variety of voices to talk about personal matters in the art form they wanted to, ranging from essays to comics.

This book was a wonderful compilation of life stories from authors, actors, and others who decided to share their stories of mental health issues. The stories range from eating disorders to anxiety issues to mental health disorders and all help to provide and uplifting, positive message to those who are also suffering from those same issues. As someone who has multiple family members who deal with mental illness issues, this book struck a nerve with me and made me remember that a person is not defined by their diagnosis.

This is such a powerful read. So much so, I’m kicking myself for not reading it sooner. While the whole thing is a gold mine of support and information, it was the opening essay that had me. The writer was describing me, my frustrations and my fears. It was the reassurance I needed; I’m not alone, the chemically balanced people are just responding in a way society has trained them to respond and most importantly; my depression doesn’t define me.
While addressed to a target audience of young adults, finding their way through the world, it’s a perfect read for everyone.

Although I did not relate directly to the experiences described in these essays, I think it is important to read widely in order to better understand the perspectives of other people in my world. This did give me a better understanding of what some people live with on a daily basis. I can see how reading one or various of the essays in this collection might be very helpful to someone who is struggling with their own mental health and is feeling alone in that struggle. It also might be very helpful to someone who is trying to be supportive of a friend or family member. The message of the importance of openness of communication in regards mental health and acceptance in finding the best way for each person to deal with their own mental health is clear.

(DON'T) CALL ME CRAZY edited by Kelly Jensen contains a series of essays, lists and drawings from "33 voices [who] start the conversation about mental health." Contributors include familiar names like Kristen Bell, Libba Bray and Adam Silvera. Jensen, who also edited Here We Are about feminism, dedicated this book "for those who have found their brave and for those who are still looking." I liked the section where Jensen wrote, "I felt like me, until I didn't. ... I am a person figuring out how to be the best version of myself, one step at a time." A useful resource is the list of non-fiction and fiction books, online sources, and films which appears near the end of this collection. Of course, the problem with lists is what is left off and this one, somewhat surprisingly, did not include relevant titles by popular young adult authors like A.S. King, Jennifer Niven, or Matthew Quick. It did include Hotline numbers like National Suicide Prevention at 1-800-273-TALK (8255). School Library Journal gave (DON'T) CALL ME CRAZY a starred review; Kirkus ("highly readable and vital collection") and Booklist ("inviting, much-needed resource") were also very positive. Let the talk continue.

Mental illness is nothing to be ashamed of and we as a society must work to end the stigma that surrounds it. Books like this and "Life Inside My Mind" are great ways to get the conversation started. I was so happy to see submissions from Emery Lord and Adam Silvera, two authors I've met, chatted with, and deeply respect. I also found Libba Bray's one-act play with her anthropomorphized anxiety and OCD both hilarious and painfully relatable.

This is such an important book. I have been around people with anxiety, depression, and bipolar for my entire life. This is always something that will be with us and to understand how people with mental illness are sometimes viewed and treated is an important part of understanding the stigma attached. Thank you for this book and thank you for letting me read and write this .

This book really has something that represents almost anyone. It was refreshing to see mental health taken on so thoroughly with candid, relatable essays. "(Don't) Call Me Crazy" humanizes diagnoses and includes authors from all genres that will make readers pick up the book in the first place. Once you pick it up, there's not way you're just reading one story.

A long awaited anthology that delves into many mental health issues from well-known anxiety and depression to lesser-known trichotillomania. There are reading lists recommended too, so readers can dive as far into mental health as they would like.

Personally, I love the inclusion of graphic short stories as well. Not only did it break up the pages of text for me, but I also thought they would be a great way to introduce some of these things to students in multiple settings.

However, be aware that some of these stories will be triggers for readers who pick up the book. Make sure they know that skipping stories is okay whether it's due to not being interested or something else.

Nonfiction and anthologies aren't usually my thing, but this nonfiction anthology about mental health is good! As with all anthologies, some essays/stories are better than others. However, in (Don't) Call Me Crazy, there were only two that I skimmed, and that is more because the writing style wasn't to my liking-- not because the content was unimportant or trite.

People who struggle with mental illness will find (Don't) Call Me Crazy a mirror and find comfort in the time-and-time-again fact of what is written on every page that they aren't alone. Not everyone's experience with depression or an eating disorder or anxiety or PTSD will look the same, and that multiple authors are writing on the same mental illnesses highlight that fact. HOWEVER, that's not to say that some mental illnesses or not covered. Kelly Jensen has done an excellent job in curating the essays and making sure there is a wide array and diversity of authors from straight to anywhere and everyone on the LGBTQIA+ spectrum, from a variety of ethnic and racial backgrounds, and from up and down the socioeconomic hierarchy. Because everyone is affected by mental illness.

People who have not experienced mental illness first hand will have the "window" experience. (Don't) Call Me Crazy does a wonderful job of explaining how, often, receiving that diagnosis is comforting in the fact that's it not something we're making up. But that we are more than our diagnosis, too; it doesn't define us.

I'm very proud of the work that is being done to make mental illness and its treatment less taboo, and I have a feeling that (Don't) Call Me Crazy will help teens find comfort and/or the courage to get the help they need-- or be a positive ally to a friend who may be suffering from mental illness.

A great mix of stories, handling mental health with care and diverse ranges of perspectives. This one will fly off the library shelves.

This anthology has been a rough one for me, as someone who functions with diagnoses, and there are essays that touch very close to home for me. Even as someone very aware of my own labels, hearing other people's experiences with the same, and learning more about other conditions has been a worthwhile venture even if it took a lot of effort. It is always useful to hear firsthand from people who have been separated and othered. Teens looking for voices like theirs, or teens curious about certain conditions will find a lot to unpack. Any teen could use this chance to expand their empathy and understanding of the people around them.

I thought this would be interesting in the beginning but I quickly lost passion in this book and felt that it would be better for a different reader.

This was another one of those books that I read and thought ‘yup, this one’s important.’ There is still so much stigma around mental illness, and I think people need to see how much mental illness can actually affect someone. I think a lot of young people will be able to relate to these stories, and hopefully this book will help them realize that they aren’t alone.

While some essays were fantastic and easy to get through, there were definitely ones in this collection that weren’t very well written, or were a slower read. That doesn’t make anyone’s story less important, and as a whole this book was a fantastic read.