What Made Maddy Run ★★★★☆

What Made Maddy Run: The Secret Struggles and Tragic Death of An All-American Teen (Click Here To Buy)

★★★★☆

What Made Maddy Run: The Secret Struggles and Tragic Death of an All-American Teen by Kate Fagan is a non-fiction book about Madison Holleran, a freshman athlete at the University of Pennsylvania who completed suicide.

I read this as an audiobook on loan from the library read by the author.

To start off with, this book is not about running - it’s about teen/young adult mental health. Maddy was a great athlete and student in high school who was recruited to the University of Pennsylvania. During her first semester she struggled deeply with anxiety and depression and ended up taking her own life. Fagan recounts Maddy’s life including warning signs as well as pressures of young adult athletes and digital natives (those who have never not known social media). Fagan additionally connects her own experience to Maddy’s story as well as interviewing others who struggle with mental health issues.

What we need to do: 1. normalize bad feelings - if you have them, let’s talk about them; 2. decrease the time it takes to get an initial appointment with a mental health professional - it takes a lot to be willing to ask for help and it’s not helpful when the response is 2 or more weeks to get an appointment; 3. change the way we write and talk about suicide - stop sensationalizing suicide, change the way we word things, and address suicide a public health issue.

Fagan also wrote an ESPN-W article prior to the book that’s worth reading if you don’t think you’d read the whole book. The article is called “Split Image.”

If you or someone you know is in crisis or contemplating suicide, you can text 741741 at any time or call 1-800-273-8255.

If you liked What Made Maddy Run, I also recommend Killing Yourself to Live by Chuck Klosterman, Girl, Interrupted by Susanna Kaysen, Let Your Mind Run by Deena Kastor, and The Midnight Library by Matt Haig.

Happy reading friends,

Ms.Bjork