A Book Drive for Kids' Mental Health

Tl;dr: I’ve launched a fundraiser to donate copies of D.J. ROSENBLUM to mental health organizations.

Donate here: https://gofund.me/f293ea29.

Friends,

If you’ve followed my promotion of my debut young adult novel, D.J. Rosenblum Becomes the G.O.A.T., you probably know it’s a mystery. You probably know it’s very queer and very Jewish.

What you probably don’t know is that—more than anything—this book is about youth mental health. Specifically: grief, depression, and suicide loss.

I dedicated D.J. Rosenblum to my friend Lisa, who died by suicide in 2020. That loss nearly broke me: I sank into a depression, questioning basic elements of my selfhood, my value to the people I loved, and most trenchantly, why. I was confused and furious. I needed to assign blame, and I couldn’t. I was living in my parents’ home during those early months of the COVID-19 pandemic, reduced to a younger, baser version of myself.

All these experiences coalesced into D.J. Rosenblum, a book my editor (the phenom Irene Vázquez) calls “a Trojan horse about mental health.” I can’t think of a better descriptor. And as I’ve thought about measures of success for the book over the past month, I realized that one thing is more important than awards or sales to me:

My dearest hope is that this book reach young people and families dealing with mental health crises. So I’ve launched a fundraiser, asking folks to donate so I can give copies of D.J. Rosenblum Becomes the G.O.A.T. to local affiliates of the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI).

I’ve supported NAMI for over five years, since Lisa’s death. They have more than 650 affiliates across the United States. And over the past month, as I’ve reached out to NAMI affiliates to see if they have libraries or youth programs to share the book with their members, I’ve been reminded of the desperate need for more books that help kids process their most difficult experiences. Here are just a few of the testimonies I received:

“We would love a copy of your book . . . We are in a small rural area with limited resources and a lot of stigma, so any new materials that might help someone are appreciated.”

“I am so grateful you reached out! We do have a small library that we share with support group. We also host some youth programming that this might lend well to as well. We would love to share this!”

“Thank you for thinking of NAMI organizations all the way in the Frozen North! Our youth experience suicidal ideation at a rate significantly higher than the rest of the US and our queer youth statistics are even more bleak . . . We look forward to your donation and will happily not only add it to our lending library but will recommend it in our interactions with youth and youth-serving organizations.”

For me, these messages have served as both a sobering—and an empowering—reminder: Mental health issues remain rampant among young adults. Yet we as a society can help alleviate their burdens so our young people can pursue long, happy, healthy lives.

I ask you, today, to take one small step to help the most vulnerable among us. Donate to this fundraiser: https://gofund.me/f293ea29.

• A donation of $28.56 will buy and ship one copy of the book to a NAMI affiliate with youth ready to read.

• If you donate to buy three or more books, I’ll send you a handwritten thank-you note and exclusive D.J. Rosenblum bookmarks and stickers.

• And if you donate $200 or more, I’ll send you all of that and a loaf of homemade challah. (Believe me: You want it.)
  

I’ll buy all copies of D.J. Rosenblum from the one and only Loyalty Bookstores—a queer-, Black-, and Asian-owned independent bookshop in my home of Washington, DC. So, you can trust that any dollars you donate will also support a community pillar which goes out of its way to uplift marginalized authors and readers.

By the end of this fundraiser, I’m aiming to donate 225 copies of D.J. Rosenblum. Given the cost of books, shipping fees, and taxes today, this totals an amount that makes me very anxious! But I believe this book can make a difference for young people and families struggling with mental illness. It would be the greatest honor and joy of my life to share it with more of that readership.

Thank you for reading, for supporting D.J. Rosenblum, and for considering the mission of this fundraiser. If you can’t donate—and, let’s face it, even if you can—I would be so grateful if you shared the fundraiser and/or this post with friends who might be interested in supporting. I’ll make sure to repost anything you put on social media, and I’ve always found direct texts and emails to loved ones most effective.

If Lisa had lived, she would have turned 28 this week. Her loss was painful and pointless, and the agony that followed was one no person should have to endure. Together, we can help ensure future young people have better resources to grapple with mental health issues like grief, depression, and suicide loss. Thank you for supporting. Thank you for caring. Thank you for helping to make our world a kinder, safer place.

With love,

Abby

And the usual…