The Mindful Monsters
The Mindful Monsters is my senior capstone project. After struggling with my own mental health in my teens and into college, I have become an advocate for seeking help and openly communicating with trusted peers. I have always wanted to create something that could help others understand mental health either of themselves or others better. When introduced to the project that ended up creating Understand, Act and Advocate, I realized how much mental health affects children and that the problems present themselves a lot earlier in life than most of us realize. This book’s goal is to introduce children to the basic concepts of these ‘monsters’ and giving them basic coping skills if they ever find themselves facing one.
To view the full First Day Worries book, click here
Individual Project | May 2020
“It’s important for kids of all ages to tell their stories, as it helps them try to understand their emotions and the events that occur in their lives.”
Creating the story
The primary goal for The Mindful Monsters is to introduce the topic of common mental health disorders that children struggle with. Through research I found that the most common disorders among children are: anxiety, depression, ADHD, eating disorders, and OCD. Anxiety being the most common, I wanted to focus my attention on that for the first book.
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Once, I had decided which mental health disorder to focus on it was time to create the storyline. I decided to ask my peers and younger family members, “when did you usually feel the most anxiety as a child”? The answer I heard back the most was, school. This gave me the setting for the book. With these pieces I was able to create the story for First Day Worries.
Cover Design
The cover for the First Day Worries needs to intrigue the readers, and to give them a brief idea of what the book is about. The image chosen for the cover is from the point in the story where Worry is the most anxious, this imagery is simplified to the just Worry and his expression. The inside flap has a description of story and what The Mindful Monsters primary goal is. Thus, informing the parents that there are other books that highlight different mental health topics.
The gangs all here . . .
Even though I am currently not planning on writing and illustrating the other books in The Mindful Monsters series, I did want to explore what the monsters would look like. This helped me to keep visualizing the series as a
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whole and not just one book, and how the system I create could expand further. The other monsters represent; ADHD, eating disorders, depression and OCD. Who do you think represents what?