Joyce Chang, Avery Gaiennie-Lovell, and Sophia Smith
11th Grade
El Dorado High School
Orange County
My entry is an animated short closely following the theme of peer or student relationships and how mental health affects those relationships between individuals impacted by mental health. Although the category asked for 30 seconds, our entry is around 1 minute in length due to our focus on a strong thematic message we hoped would carry through an appropriate script and time by showing how serious the topic is. Students are often impacted by stress and outside factors that lead to harmful behaviors such as distance, a lack of self motivation, and failing grades which altogether continue to contribute to poor mental health, and sometimes to suicidal thoughts. Avery’s character, the individual impacted by mental health issues, would often ask if “anything would even matter” or how she “wouldn’t mind” if something negative happened to her, showed by how overwhelming all these thoughts can be in the sequence of the animation. The black cloud following her metaphorizes how the negative seem to consume her and Sophia, her student peer, notices this behavior and reaches out first in order to comfort and support her. The animation in the video is set to prove how relationships between person to another individual serves to be important in the process of healing and that prevention is possible if someone will show that they care first.
