Nearly a third of female high-school students said they had considered suicide in 2021, a significant increase since 2019 and a strong signal that teenagers need better and broader mental-health support, according to recent data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
For years, researchers have tracked a concerning dip in the mental health of America’s teen girls. In 2021, nearly 60% of U.S. teenage girls said they felt sad or hopeless—the highest number in a decade, and roughly double the one reported among teenage boys that year. But the problem predates the pandemic. Depression has become more common among young people over the past decade, and in 2015, after years of increases, the suicide rate among teenage girls hit a 40-year high.
Read more at Time.