A Teen's Take On the Pandemic ft. Annabel Reddick

A Teen’s Take On the Pandemic: 2 Years In featuring Annabel Reddick – Shrinking It Down

By Annabel Reddick, Khadijah Booth Watkins, Associate Director and Gene Beresin, Executive Director

Topics: Child + Adolescent Development, COVID-19 + Family Mental Health, Culture + Society

The COVID pandemic is like nothing most of us have ever lived through. This is especially true for kids and teens who are still developing mentally and physically. This week we talk with special guest, Annabel Reddick, a high school senior in Davidson, North Carolina about her experience living through the pandemic, and how things are going two years into it.

Gene, Khadijah, and Annabel discuss the struggle of remote learning and maintaining relationships, readjusting to school more than a year later, how she and her sister coped, and what she thinks adults should know about teens and mental health. Tune in for a great conversation and to hear a perspective we don’t often get but have a lot to learn from.

While Annabel’s experience is just that of one teen, we believe she discusses some universal truths from her story that highlight issues of mental health for many teens out there.

Media List

Follow along with the conversation.

Birdcage Memoirs: A Teen’s Reflections on Living Through the Pandemic (MGH Clay Center)
7 Ways to Support Kids and Teens Through the Coronavirus Pandemic (MGH Clay Center)
Pink Freud & The Transitional Objects – 2020 AACAP Virtual Meeting (YouTube)
Woodchuck (imgflip.com)
The Problem of Social Anxiety Disorder (MGH Clay Center)
What Is ADHD? (MGH Clay Center)
What Is Resilience? (MGH Clay Center)
Clay Center Conversation Starters (YouTube)
Why we’re all getting to know ourselves a little better in quarantine (LA Times)
How to Play the Ukulele (YouTube)

Episode produced by Bianca Dempsey

Edited by Sara Rattigan

Music by Gene Beresin

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Annabel Reddick

Annabel is a 17-year-old high school senior with a passion for creative writing. She channeled this creativity as one way of processing and sharing her reflections of living through the COVID-19 pandemic....

To read full bio click here.

Khadijah Booth Watkins, Associate Director

Khadijah Booth Watkins, MD, MPH, is associate director of the Clay Center for Young Healthy Minds at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), and the Associate Director of the Child and...

To learn more about Khadijah, or to contact her directly, please see Our Team.

Gene Beresin, Executive Director

Gene Beresin, MD, MA is executive director of The MGH Clay Center for Young Healthy Minds, and a staff child and adolescent psychiatrist at Massachusetts General Hospital. He is also...

To learn more about Gene, or to contact him directly, please see Our Team.