What I Chose: Enhancing Suicide Prevention through Young Adult (YA) Fiction

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2017-05
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Uekawa, Madisyn
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Schultz, Susan
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Public Health
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University of Hawaii at Manoa
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What I Chose is a Young Adult (YA) fictional novella that emerged from my desire to use popular literature as a tool to promote good health. I read and evaluated a series of six popular YA fiction books that contain themes of suicide, and I attempt to emulate the effective literary techniques of these best-selling authors alongside safe messaging into my work. I use my protagonist, Kiara, and Emma, her deceased twin who died by suicide, to exemplify individuals at risk for suicide. I also include supporting characters that show readers a way to reach out to those that display suicidal signs. I form my novella around Kiara’s journey as a transfer freshman at UH who is looking for a restart in life but finds herself uncovering the death and story of her twin that she had no prior knowledge of. Kiara is looked at by those who knew Emma as if she had returned from the dead, and she finds herself given a second chance at life. Similar to most of the YA novels I read in my research, What I Chose aims to hopefully illuminate the meaning in finding purpose, hope, and embracing the choices we are given in this life. Since popular culture and ideology can be influenced by successful YA literature (due to its large readership), it is essential to appropriately expand upon a YA “health promoting” subgenre that can be didactic and that can potentially improve holistic well-being and possibly reduce detrimental behavior.
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142 pages
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