Abstract: Contemporary young-adult (YA) fiction increasingly explores depression, anxiety, trauma, suicidal ideation, and psychological distress. This paper examines these representations in John Green’s Turtles All the Way Down (2017), Jennifer Niven’s All the Bright Places (2015), and Ned Vizzini’s It’s Kind of a Funny Story (2006). Using qualitative close reading and an interdisciplinary framework informed by literary studies, mental-health discourse, disability studies, and narrative medicine, the study focuses on psychological experience, identity, relationships, stigma, treatment, and recovery. It argues that contemporary YA fiction can humanize mental illness by presenting characters as multidimensional individuals rather than reducing them to symptoms. However, some narratives may romanticize suffering by connecting mental illness with romance, exceptional sensitivity, or tragedy. Responsible representation requires psychological complexity, narrative agency, social context, and realistic possibilities for support and recovery.

Keywords:Young-Adult fiction, depression, anxiety, mental health, adolescents, stigma, identity, recovery.