In this episode, teens from Georgia discuss their perspectives on mental health and well-being. Hosted by teens from Aspire Clubhouse and Afterschool All Stars Atlanta, the podcast features candid conversations on the importance of mental health, the role of family and community, and personal coping mechanisms like music and sports.
Transcript (Edited for clarity)
Welcome to the Free Your Feels podcast, created by and for young people across Georgia to speak up, listen, and connect about mental health and wellbeing. This podcast is hosted by teens at Aspire Clubhouse, where we engage in real conversations about mental health, socializing, and sharing our message with the broader community.
Let’s get into it.
Tia Smith: This podcast today is gonna be about mental health. My name is Tia Smith. I’m 12 years old. What’s your name and age?
Cassie Leverett: My name is Cassie Leverett. I’m 17.
Tia Smith: What does mental health mean to you?
Cassie Leverett: Mental health is very important to me because mental health portrays how you look at life, how you see your future, like how you even see yourself. So it’s very important.
Tia Smith: How did you find out about mental health growing up?
Cassie Leverett: People would ask me, like, how I think about things or something.
Tia Smith: How can mental health be more of a topic for your community?
Cassie Leverett: Connecting more through the mindset., I know there are a lot of activities and sports going around, but actually getting to know people, like knowing them for who they are and not just for their talents.
Tia Smith: So, like not knowing them for something that they do and how they act.?
Cassie Leverett: Yeah.
Tia Smith: How do your family or friends talk about mental health?
Cassie Leverett: To be honest, they don’t talk about mental health as much as they should.
Tia Smith: Well, thank you for being on this podcast, ’cause it’s really hard for people to answer questions like this.
Cassie Leverett: Thank you very much.
Tia Smith: What’s your name and age?
Carmen Livery: My name is Carmen Livery, and I’m 17.
Tia Smith: Okay. Nice to meet you.
Carmen Livery: Nice to meet you.
Tia Smith: And thank you for being on this podcast, ’cause sometimes it’s hard for people to answer questions like this.
Carmen Livery: Mm-hmm.
Tia Smith: So the first question is, what does mental health mean to you personally?
Carmen Livery: It means a lot because my energy is based on what I’m dealing with.
Tia Smith: How did you find out about mental health?
Carmen Livery: Dealing with emotions.
Tia Smith: How can mental health be more of a topic for your community?
Carmen Livery: Everybody has to be interested to learn about mental health, but our generation doesn’t really focus on it till they go through something.
Tia Smith: How do your family or friends talk about mental health?
Carmen Livery: They feel good about it. They can talk, talk it out with us, without any hard feelings, and everybody is on the same page.
Tia Smith: So like without any like emotion or something?
Carmen Livery: Yeah. Like emotions are going to be everywhere anyway. But everybody has to be strong too. You gotta be mature enough to even want to talk about mental health. That’s what I think.
Tia Smith: We appreciate you listening to this special Free Your Feels podcast. Whether you’re a teen, young adult mentor, or someone who just thinks that youth have a lot to say, keep in mind that the future is already underway, and it sounds like this.
Continue to listen to teens’ content at voxatl.org, freeyourfeels.org, and of course aspiredbhdd.org.
Adult Ally: Welcome to Free Your Feels Podcast, created by and for youth across Georgia to speak up, listen, and connect around mental health and wellbeing.
This podcast is hosted by teens at Afterschool All Stars Atlanta, where we decided to host real conversations about our teens and how they would like to be involved in their own mental health awareness. Let’s get into it.
Amelia: Hi, everyone. Welcome to our podcast. My name is Amelia, and I’m 14. I’m with Afterschool All Stars, and today I’m here with:
Chasity: My name is Chasity. I’m 12 years old. I’m in the seventh grade, and I also attend Afterschool All Stars.
Amelia: Okay. And what do you do when you’re feeling down?
Chasity: I just go somewhere alone, or I just listen to music. It helps me boost my energy.
Amelia: What type of music do you listen to?
Chasity: Rap. Well, when I’m feeling down, R&B.
Amelia: What artist do you listen to?
Chasity: Uh, Jhene… I think that’s how you say it.
Amelia: Jhene Aiko.
Chasity: Yeah.
Amelia: I like the one that goes like “Sing to me.”
Chasity: Yeah. I like that one too.
Amelia: That’s the only one I know really. But I really like that one.
Chasity: Well, I don’t have a lot of stress, but when I do stress, I just talk to one of my peers I can trust.
Amelia: Yeah, I talk to my friends a lot. Sometimes I talk to my parents, but sometimes they don’t get it.
Chasity: Right.
Amelia: They do not get it at all, and they try to take the other person’s side.
Chasity: Right.
Amelia: Thank you for coming on here.
Chasity: You’re welcome.
Amelia: We loved hearing your opinion, and maybe we’ll see you later.
Amelia: Hello. Today, we have …
Michael Stallings: Michael Stallings.
Amelia: How old are you, Michael?
Michael Stallings: I am 13. I’m in seventh grade.
Amelia: Today, we’re going to ask you some questions related to mental health. What do you do when you’re feeling down?
Michael Stallings: I listen to music.
Amelia: Good.
Michael Stallings: I sleep.
Amelia: Sleep. That’s what my sister does. She always sleeps, and then she feels better when she wakes up.
Michael Stallings: So, I don’t handle stress very well. I mean, I just sleep most of the time, and you can’t always sleep. You can’t really sleep in class.
Amelia: Right.
Michael Stallings: But I don’t really do anything. I just sorta like… I daydream.
Amelia: Yeah. I do that a lot. I daydream about mostly bad stuff, but not really a dream. Maybe a day nightmare, but…
Michael Stallings: Day nightmare.
Amelia: What else do you want to share about mental health in your community?
Michael Stallings: One thing I’ve noticed about Black people, or at least the older generation of our Black people. They overlook it as just like a [first-world] problem, right? Like, you have responsibilities, so it just doesn’t exist anymore. That’s what my mom said.
Amelia: Thank you for sharing, and we’ll see you next time!
Paige: Hi, everybody. Welcome to the podcast. It’s Paige, and I’m here with…
Alexander Hernandez: Alexander Hernandez. I’m 14.
Paige: I’m also 14. How do your parents impact your mental health?
Alexander Hernandez: Well, for me, I only have my mom, really. And I feel like she’s supportive. I’ve had times where I’ve ruined her trust, but I try to get it back and make her proud.
Paige: So you feel like she uplifts you?
Alexander Hernandez: Yeah.
Paige: For me, I mainly have my mom. My dad is in Texas with my grandparents. It’s just like my mom and me most of the time. And I also feel like the same way, ’cause I know she gets mad or whatever sometimes, but I feel like for the most part it’s just me. I just want to make sure that she trusts me and loves me.
I was kind of nervous, though. Because speaking in front of people, especially at my age, is kind of nerve-racking, and it was just hard. I could talk to people like Amelia and Caleb, it’s fine. But for other people, I’m not sure. It’s very hard.
Alexander Hernandez: Well, I mean, for me it’s like I try to talk to as many people as I can ’cause like I’m trying to leave an impact when I go out.
Paige: But I’m so nervous because I don’t know; sometimes I start, and I’ll begin to stutter, or I just don’t know what to say.
Alexander Hernandez: That’s a bad problem I got. Like I stutter so bad, I just say, ‘We all are.’ I stutter so bad sometimes.
Paige: I just have to stop my whole sentence. I’d be like, ‘I don’t want to talk anymore.’
Earlier in the “step challenge,” you took a big step for music helping you cope. What kind of music do you listen to?
Alexander Hernandez: I mainly listen to Lil Pete, but I also enjoy Suicide Boys and Lil Dark.
Those are my main Thea and Little Tracy.
Paige: Okay. Thank you for sharing. We look forward to seeing you next time.
Caleb: What’s up? My name is Caleb. And I’m here with
RJ: My name is RJ.
Caleb: Alright, so we’ll start with some questions. What do you do when you’re feeling down?
RJ: I just play the game.
Caleb: So we were asking for a step up/step back. I saw a lot of you like stepping up to the music question. What do you listen to, and how does it affect you?
RJ: I listen to a lot of music, so it depends on how I’m feeling.
Caleb: Give me some examples.
RJ: Sometimes I listen to Honcho or something.
Caleb: How do you feel when you play Honcho? Or what situations are you playing him in?
RJ: Just when I’m feeling like, when I’m feeling up or something.
Caleb: He’s there to keep you excited?
RJ: Yeah.
Caleb: So do you play him when you’re feeling sad or down, especially when you’re losing? Or on the losing streak?
RJ: Yeah.
Caleb: Alright. Thank you. Thank you for your opinion.
Caleb: Alright. I’m here with
John: My name is John. I’m 13 years old. I’m in the sixth grade.
Caleb: Alright, I’d like to start with a few questions. What do you do when your feelings are down?
John: Sometimes, I’ll listen to music, but most of the time, I grab my football and run somewhere else to relieve stress or work out.
Caleb: Alright. You work out, right?
John: Mm-hmm.
Caleb: I saw a lot of you step up with that music question: how does music help you?
John: Music helps me. It affects my mood, whether I’m feeling down. I can listen to some. It is. Some Young Boy, not that much though. Or, like, some SZA or something. I can get like pumped up. My mood burst out from that ’cause of the uplifting beats and all that. But sometimes when I’m feeling down, I try to play uplifting music, but like what matches me when I’m down, I like to play some, like some soft music, like says like SZA or softer music, or some Rod that’s probably about when I’m feeling down. That’s about it.
Caleb: All right, so you’re saying the music affects your feelings and the music helps you with your feelings, right? What do you do to cope with your feelings? You said you play the game. I heard you say run routes. You said workout, I heard you say music. What else?
John: When I’m working or running routes, I get my friend, who’s the starting quarterback for the school. So we just run routes, or I get everybody together and we just run a game. When I’m working out, I usually head to school and then go to the gym. I usually go to the workout room, but it’s going to be after school. I usually just bench, squat, all that. And I know sometimes that I want to quit, but I got to push myself to get better and better every time.
Caleb: Appreciate you!
John: Anytime.
Adult Ally: We appreciate you listening to this special free Your Feels podcast. Whether you’re a teen, young adult mentor, or someone who just thinks that youth have a lot to say, keep in mind that the future is already underway, and it sounds like this. Continue to listen to teens and our content at voxatl.org, FreeYourFeels.org, and of course AfterschoolAllStars.org.
We look forward to hearing from you soon. Bye-bye.
Santiago: Hi, my name is Santiago Soná, and I’m the 10th care representative for the Free Year Feels Club. My pronouns are he/him. I’ve always been heavy on mental health because a lot of my friends and I have dealt with it.
And like coming from a Hispanic household, our parents don’t really believe in depression. They just completely disregard it. So I feel like it’s something that everybody should have a way to cope with the stress, anxiety, and maybe depression, too.
And that’s why I joined. A lot of people that I know, or even people that I don’t know that I’ve heard about, have talked about dealing with depression, suicidal thoughts, and anxiety. So, I think that’s why it was the most important topic to discuss.
Rachel Alterman Wallack: And so what has been the result for you of doing that work and learning about those topics to share with your peers?
Santiago: It has given me a certain level of professionalism at my age. I feel like I can now help people around my age group in a healthier way, not just for me, but for them too.
Because, like in the past, I would like to put other people’s issues before mine. And now I can help somebody without completely disregarding myself and my feelings.
Rain: Hi, I am Rain. I’m the 11th-grade representative for the Free Your Feels club.
Chiron: And so what topics, including mental health, did you choose to focus on and why?
Rain: The first topic we focused on was healthy relationships. The things that people go through in relationships, good and bad. The reasons why we chose to focus on that topic. It is because Tri-Cities is so dramatic, and I think if the kids here got some tips on how to handle their relationships, it would really help.
It’ll help a lot.
Sakari: Hi, my name is Sakari. I am the 12th-grade representative here at Tri-Cities High School.
Chiron: And why was it important that this initiative be youth-led?
Sakari: So we know that we have our own voice and that it’s not just the adults who know everything, that we also know things, and that we can work with adults instead of having to have a back-and-forth.
The Morehouse School of Medicine commissioned this podcast. It was produced in partnership with VOX ATL, Free Your Feels, Voices for Georgia’s Children, and the Georgia Health Policy Center, and funded by the Office of Minority Health (OMH).
