“It’s terrifying” the amount of anxiety this generation is dealing with, Allen shared. “I mean, the numbers are jumping so fast, so dramatically. Something is wrong. We are breathing—living and breathing—anxiety and something is really wrong.”
Allen stated, “This is a red alert problem,” and shared what she believes is one of the main reasons causing it.
“Isolation” is one of the “greatest detriments to a human,” Allen argued, adding that the “most dangerous thing research has proven is isolation. We are a very isolated society…there’s a lot of reasons for that, but I would say most of them all point back to the tech revolution.”
Allen’s hope for the book is that parents will engage in this important conversation with their children. “I want them to be tucking in their kid—even if you think, ‘I have a kid that doesn’t seem very anxious,’ you might be surprised when you ask them, ‘What do you think about all the time?’” she said. “You might be surprised because, again, the statistics are pretty scary and alarming, that 85% of what we think about is negative.”
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“They’re in a world where bullying is normal, where encouragement is rare, where they constantly are aware of their physical bodies and how they’re different,” Allen explained.
“What might be the reason they feel left out? Why are they isolated?” she asked. “They’re analyzing all that by themselves. And so the greatest gift we can give anybody, all the people in the world, is connection.”
“My hope is every single person listening would buy this book and read it to a kid they know. It might be their niece or nephew; it might be their classroom if they’re a teacher; it might be their own kids or grandkids,” she said. “But that you would read it to a kid and start a conversation, because if you start a conversation, then that kid is less alone [and they will] have a safe adult to talk to. And that’s a gift.”
