Hey Guys.
Exciting news. TWLOHA is included in an article about depression in the new issue of Teen Vogue Magazine. It’s the February 2009 issue (Gossip Girl’s Leighton Meester on the cover). The article was written by Leigh Belz and can be found on page 106. Depression is something that affects millions of people, and yet very few people talk about it. We’ve seen change and hope begin to happen as people begin to believe that not only is it okay to talk about depression, it’s essential. So with that, we think it’s amazing and important that Teen Vogue is talking about it, considering a million people read this magazine.
Behind the scenes: i did the interview with Leigh Belz for this article two different times, once by telephone in 2007, trying to talk louder than the rain outside a restaurant in Hossegor, France. And again a couple months ago, in-person at the Teen Vogue office near Times Square in NYC.
i walked from there to the Paramount Hotel, which is the first place i ever stayed in New York, back in 2002 with my friend Zeke, when we were both working for Hurley. Zeke was lost to suicide in 2006 and so i like to go back to the lobby at the Paramount, to sit and remember him.
It was strange to do the interview so close to this place that reminds me of my friend, to be reminded that these things we talk about, they aren’t just words. Issues and ideas and problems and solutions and statistics – these things matter because they represent people, and people are the most important thing. i’ve sat in that lobby at Paramount with my friend Zeke and now he’s gone. So we talk about hope and we talk about help, and community and everything else, so that it doesn’t happen again, so that people stay alive.
Check out the article and let us know what you think.
Peace to you.
jamie
PS: There are still tickets available for Heavy and Light this Sunday in Orlando. Show starts at 6pm and we hope to see a lot of you there. It’s gonna be a special night.