Young author advocates for mental health of teens

HUNTLEY – Just as Hannah Soukup, 17, was rounding out her junior year of high school, she was putting the finishing touches on her first book.

As she heads into her senior year, she has her sights set on writing a sequel.

Soukup’s novella, To Be Consumed, tells a heartbreakingly tender story of Caleb, who falls in love with his smart and outspoken classmate, El. The couple’s relationship is riddled with complications from the start, first from the ever-shifting landscape of high school popularity, then later by mental illness and substance abuse. From Caleb’s perspective, the reader gains insight into the entanglement one feels when watching a loved one unravel, accompanied by feelings of loss and helplessness.

Soukup says she wrote the novella feverishly over the course of just a few days, inspired by her passion for raising awareness about mental health struggles facing teens today.

“I wanted to write a fictional story based on personal experiences to basically shed light on how certain actions can affect your loved ones,” she says. “I wanted people to not feel alone if they were going through something similar.”

The next book Soukup is writing will focus on the perspective of Mary, El’s mother.

Soukup began writing when she was only seven years old. At the age of nine, she wrote a lengthy book about dragons.

“Instead of playing outside, I sat on my mom’s computer, writing,” laughs Soukup, who says she remembers deciding as a little girl to become a journalist. At first, she was drawn to the comic strips in her mother’s newspapers, but eventually began reading the articles, too.

Now, Soukup is participating in the Dual Credit Program, a partnership between Elgin Community College and participating secondary schools, where she earns college credit toward her Associate’s Degree as she finishes up at Hampshire High School. She dreams of pursuing a career in either journalism or psychology so she can continue educating and advocating for those affected by mental illness.

“I love writing and I have such a passion for it,” she says. “Sometimes I have such a hard time expressing emotions through words. I feel like writing is such an impactful way to spread a message.”

To Be Consumed was published in May 2022 and is available in digital format on Amazon.