When I was a teenager, I battled some severe depression.
I wrote 'Pumped Up Kicks' when I began to read about the growing trend in teenage mental illness. I wanted to understand the psychology behind it because it was foreign to me.
I went through a time of depression in my life when I was a teenager - I think a lot of teenagers do.
I get particularly depressed by the way teenagers are portrayed in the media. They are massively underestimated. They are bright, intelligent people who are given less and less opportunity. They are an ignored generation.
I wrote 'Love Is Dead' when I was a super-depressed teenager.
But youth isn't happy. Youth is sadder than age.
When I turned 17, that's when it all got a bit too much. I decided to stop doing pretty much everything. I quit football. I wouldn't get up in the morning. I wouldn't go out of my room. I was very depressed.
I was pretty depressed when I was a teenager. The thing that spurred that on was that my dad died from cancer when I was 11 years old.
Only those with skin as thick as elephant hide can hope to sail through their teens unscathed by self-doubt and bouts of depression.
I like to tell young people - you know one in four children die by their own hands - no matter how bad things seem, just wait a day, wait a week. Life will turn around.
When you are clinically diagnosed with depression as a teenager, sometimes people don't understand it. You feel like you should be happy, especially when you have a very lucky upbringing, and you blame yourself.
In the lead-up to the launch of my new book I Was Here, I’ve seen a lot of discussion about depression and suicide and mental health and YA dealing with such intense matters. What I haven’t seen discussed is kittens.
