What 26 Stories Teach Us About Gen-Z Mental Health
Inside the ongoing "Life in the Head of a Gen-Z" series.
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Thoughts, guides, and conversations from the BTR team.
Editorial pieces, mental health guides, and updates from Behind the Reels.
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Culturally grounded pieces on mental health, community, and healing for young Africans.
Life in the Head of a Gen-Z: Anxiety, Identity, and Loneliness Identified as Prevalent from 26 Stories
An analysis of the ongoing "Life in the Head of a Gen-Z" stories.
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From Story to Systems Change: How Youth Narratives Can Shape Better Mental Health Policies
Young people already sharing their experiences across the continent are not lacking a voice. What is largely missing is the structure that translates the narratives into how support is designed, funded, and delivered.
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Peer Storytelling as Mental Health Infrastructure for Young People in Low Resource Settings
The system built to deliver mental health care assumes a level of access, recognition, and self-advocacy that most young people simply do not have yet.
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Life in the Head of a Gen-Z: How Behind the Reels is Using Storytelling to Promote Youth Mental Health
Life in the Head of Gen-Z is a WHO-aligned intervention supporting youth mental health promotion through lived experiences and storytelling
Read the storyWhat It Means to Seek Help: Destigmatising Therapy for Young Africans
Going to therapy in many African communities is still seen as a sign of madness, weakness, or failure. But the bravest thing you can do is decide that your mental health is worth fighting for.
Read the storySocial Media, Identity, and the Version of Yourself You Perform Online
Every post is a choice about what to show and what to hide. But when the gap between your real life and your online life gets too wide, the performance becomes exhausting.
Read the storyGrief No One Talked About: When You Lose Someone and Are Expected to Move On
African funerals are loud, communal, and full of ceremony. But after everyone goes home, the mourner is often left alone with a grief that has no language and no timeline.
Read the storyThe Pressure to Perform: On Being the "Strong One" in Your Family
Being the firstborn, the responsible one, the one who never cries — it carries a weight no one prepared you for. And yet, the role was never yours to choose.
Read the storyWhy We Don't Talk About Mental Health at Home — And Why That Has to Change
In many African homes, emotional struggles are met with silence, prayer, or "you just need to be strong." But what happens when staying silent becomes the illness itself?
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