Author John Green, Rock Star

I don't know about your house, but in our house author John Green is a rock star. His books are devoured, his quotes memorized (my favorite, he doesn't mind paying taxes for schools because "I don't like living in a country with a bunch of stupid people"), and his videos binge-watched. My oldest daughter, Kaitie, actually writes scripts for one of the Vlog brothers channels, Sci Show Kids. So to say I was excited to see him profiled on 60 Minutes is a bit of an understatement. For students, you should know that 60 Minutes is a show watched by old people like your parents, usually on a network channel at a preset time every week. Yes, we are dinosaurs.

I know that many of our students are familiar with Green's work, books like The Fault in Our Stars and Turtles All the Way Down, but what you may not be familiar with is his struggle with obsessive-compulsive disorder and his mental health issues. This is an honest and open interview about deeply personal concerns that are often stigmatized by our society. Hopefully it instructs all of us about the reality of mental illness.

For gifted kids who frequently struggle with anxiety and depression - because no one's perfect, and you shouldn't be expected to be, and sometimes you feel like you don't fit in, and sometimes the weight of other people's expectations can be overwhelming - hearing a grown man talk about how hard it was a teenager, and how it can still be difficult now to deal with these issues, can be eye opening. Yes, it's hard to hear that some people at 40 are still in this fight, but you can also see that he has a wife and family who love him, and no one can argue about his level of success. You can have a mental illness and do the things you want to do in this life. And you don't have to be alone when you do it.

Besides the personal stuff, what I also enjoyed were the interviewer's questions about teenagers and Green's rapport with them. Personally, I think a big part of the draw is that he speaks to, and about, today's adolescents with respect. He doesn't talk down to kids, and he doesn't condescend to them. In answer to a question about that relationship, Green said, 

Well, I think sometimes teenagers maybe don't have the language to talk to us in ways that seem compelling to us. And maybe that makes it easy for us to dismiss them or think of them as less intellectually curious or intellectually sophisticated than we are. But I don't think that's true at all.

It's nice to know that there are other people out there in the world who think young people are as smart as we do!

I invite you to watch the entire interview at the link below. You can also see a second part to the interview on 60 Minutes Overtime, where he gives writing advice. Even if you weren't a fan before, I'm guessing you will be by the time you're done watching.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/the-fault-in-our-stars-author-john-green-on-reaching-young-adults-and-dealing-with-mental-illness-60-minutes/