| Q. | What made you come up with this book? |
| A. | Writing has always been an escape for me but I couldn’t ever do it unless I felt super emotional or moved enough. The first few poems I ever wrote were when my grandmother died and my dog died. |
| Q. | You have written a children’s book on depression. What do you hope to achieve? |
| A. | I hope to educate.. I was always an articulate child who could voice everything I felt.. But most people around me struggled with that. I want to give them a treasure chest of metaphors and explanation to express how they feel. |
| Q. | As someone who has suffered from depression as a child, what have been your biggest learnings? |
| A. | I think my biggest learning was to be forgiving. |
| Q. | Depression in children is a topic not often talked about. What do you think is necessary to break the taboo? |
| A. | I think it’s important to draw a comparison between mental and physical health. To give them equal importance. |
| Q. | What’s your advice to young children who are fighting depression and their family? |
| A. | Just keep swimming. I know it feels like it’ll never end. I know it feels like everyone is going ahead and you are taking steps backwards but remember that you never know what’s happening behind closed doors. You never know who else is in the same boat and chances are it’s many more people than you think. There is no right or wrong time for anything. Once you get past this terrible phase you’ll come out stronger than everyone else and then you’ll be absolutely invincible. |