The COVID-19 pandemic has negatively impacted young people’s mental health—and adults’, too, if we’re being honest—so the World Health Organization’s World Mental Health Day theme of making mental health and well-being for all a global priority could not have come at a better time.

October is Head Start Awareness Month, a special time to highlight the crucial role of Head Start and Early Head Start in supporting the cognitive, social, and emotional development of young children, ages 0-5, from low-income families.

American adolescence is changing. Three decades ago, the biggest public health threats to teenagers came from binge drinking, drunk driving, teenage pregnancy, and smoking. All have fallen sharply in the United States. In their place are soaring rates of mental illness.