I have played guitar for 35 years. I am not good at it. I sing too, and I am worse at singing. I have written seven books, and I like to joke I have sold eight, because almost no one buys them. I have finished a couple of Ironman races, and I came in last in every one. Dead last.
I keep doing all of it. Not for a medal or a record. I do it because I love the doing. Half an hour with my guitar a few times a week keeps me steady. That’s enough for me.
I made our latest film, SHIFT: Do What Moves You, to put this idea in front of young people. Doing what moves you is not about being the best. It is about having something to move toward.
I did not set out to spend my life talking about youth mental health. I started Tell My Story after I lost my 14-year-old son, Ryan, to suicide in 2018. In the years since, I have sat with hundreds of teenagers and families. The same thing comes up again and again. Young people are struggling in silence, and the adults who love them often do not see it in time.
The scale is hard to take in. One in five U.S. high schoolers reported symptoms of depression and anxiety in the past two weeks, according to the CDC. Forty percent reported persistent feelings of sadness or hopelessness in the past year, also from the CDC. Suicide is the third leading cause of death among people aged 15 to 29 worldwide, according to the World Health Organization.
Behind each number is a young person trying to get through the day. My job, and yours, is not only to keep them safe. It is to help them want to be here.
Why every young person needs something they love
Here is what I believe, and what SHIFT sets out to show. Having something you love is a protective factor. When a young person loves something, they have a reason to get up tomorrow. They have a place to put the hard feelings. They often find a group of people who see them. A reason, an outlet, and a community. Those three things hold a person up when the rest of life feels heavy.
This is where adults get it wrong. We treat the things they love as a reward for good grades, or the first thing to cut when life gets busy. For a struggling young person, the opposite is true. The thing they love is not the extra. It is the anchor.
The 13 young people in SHIFT taught me this over a year of filming. Some are elite athletes and performers. Others simply found something they loved. What carried them through their hardest stretches was not winning. It was having the thing at all.
A boy who plays basketball told me his routine for a bad day. He goes outside and plays until his head clears. He said people who sit in their sadness tend to sink deeper. He is right.
One young man reached his lowest point and ended up in the hospital. He got help, and he made a daily choice to keep going, for his family and his future. He is healthy today, and he wanted to share his story so another young person might hold on too.
For others, the anchor was a relationship. A girl found her footing with a horse named Buddy, who let her talk without fear of being judged. Another found her community in a theater group, where she finally felt lifted up instead of overlooked. Connection ran through every story.
What this looks like at home
So what do you do with this at home? You do not need a clinical degree. You need to pay attention to what lights your young person up, and protect it like it matters, because it does.
Ask them what moves them, and then ask why. Listen to understand, not to reply. Clear space in the week for the thing they love, even when the calendar is full. And model it. Let your kids see you do something you love and are not good at. When I play my guitar in the living room, I am showing my family you do not have to be excellent to deserve the joy.
Watch for the day a young person quietly drops the thing they used to love. When the thing they love begins to disappear, it is worth a gentle conversation, and sometimes a call to a professional. You do not have to carry any of this on your own.
I think about Ryan every day. Nothing brings back what we lost. My hope is that other families can better recognize the signs, have the conversations, and understand their children’s mental health before it’s too late.
So dust off the guitar, grab the sketchbook, lace up the cleats, or pick up the camera. Sit with them while they figure it out. If our film SHIFT can help start that conversation in your school, church, or community, we’d love to share it. Explore the film and additional resources at tellmystory.org.
Start one conversation this week. Every story told has the power to change another.
About the author
Jason Reid is the founder of Tell My Story, a nonprofit changing the story of youth mental health through film, free screening events, and guided conversation. After losing his son Ryan to suicide in 2018, he set out to help families connect through honest conversation. Tell My Story has produced the documentaries Tell My Story, What I Wish My Parents Knew, and SHIFT: Do What Moves You, in partnership with Oak Hollow Studios, with a new college-focused film set to release in Fall 2026.
