John Green

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John green is a famous author known for his young adult novels. Some of his famous novels include: The Fault in Our Stars, Looking for Alaska, Paper Towns, An Abundance of Katherines, and his most recent novel Turtles All the Way Down.



  
Turtles All the Way Down is an excellent depiction of art and mental health. His main character, Aza, is a young girl suffering from obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD). The book outlines her daily struggles with the illness and how she faces it everyday. John Green has discussed the importance of mental health and how it should be discussed freely. He uses the character of Aza to relate to individuals suffering from different types of illnesses. 
He states: 

I think some progress has been made in destigmatizing mental illness. I think there’s still a lot of stigma in the workplace. I think unfortunately there’s still a lot of stigma around hiring. I’m not a psychologist, I’m definitely not an expert on this stuff but one of the problems with the stigmatization is that it compounds the isolation. And I really hope we can keep breaking that down because I remember how alone I felt in it in high school and it was a big part of what made it so difficult to bear.

Overall John Green's work is a great way to use art to represent a serious topic in today's society. He does not hesitate to openly discuss these issues therefore normalizing them. 
Sources: 
http://time.com/4976944/john-green-turtles-all-the-way-down-mental-illness/