Reading the Sexy Parts Out Loud

Question:
 
I am another huge, longtime fan of Alice -and you! I’ve read several of your books over the years (Shiloh is one of my all time favorites!) but the Alice books resonated with me in a special way. My friends and I used to get the books from the library and read parts of them out loud to each other -all the stuff we had questions about, but were too afraid to ask! Thank you for helping us through that!
What I’d really like to thank you for, however, is how you wrote about Denise Whitlock several years ago. I was too young to value it then, but I have special appreciation for it now. Currently, I work in suicide prevention. Unfortunately, suicide/depression etc. still aren’t really talked about as much as they should be. Most people are afraid to bring it up and have conversations with their children or friends, but you were not. Thank you for bringing to light such a serious issue, and handling it with so much sensitivity and understanding. I hope that other readers in the future will read this and know it’s okay to talk and reach out for help -I’m sure many people already have.
Thank you for all that you do!
 
Phyllis replied:
 
You brought up two important topics–both concerning talking freely about certain subjects.  It took me a long time as a young girl to realize that whatever I was concerned about regarding bodies and sex, a zillion other girls were concerned or interested in also.  And for the life of me, I can’t understand why depression or other emotional/mental issues have to be so secretive.  We go to doctors for all sorts of ailments, some of them on very private parts of the body, so why should it be so difficult to tell a counselor or nurse or doctor, “I’m feeling really anxious and can’t put my finger on why,” or “I’ve been depressed for weeks now, and nothing seems to pull me out of it.”  But of course, there need to be willing adults and professionals available, and for many young people, those are hard to find.