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412 reviews for:
What Made Maddy Run: The Secret Struggles and Tragic Death of an All-American Teen
Kate Fagan
4.2 AVERAGE
412 reviews for:
What Made Maddy Run: The Secret Struggles and Tragic Death of an All-American Teen
Kate Fagan
4.2 AVERAGE
What Made Maddy Run about Madison Holleran and her suicide really shocked me. It shocked me because in a different life, it could have been me. And it could have been so many others who suffered in silence.
Kate Fagan tells the story of Madison Holleran honestly and without sensationalizing it. Maddy was a promising student, a star athlete, well-liked with a supportive family in high school. She was part of a dominant soccer team and switching to track, she won the state championship. But underneath this facade, this flawless image was someone who was constantly pressured to be perfect. Maddy switched to University of Pennsylvania, an Ivy League school and here the image was kept up, not perfectly but certainly much better than anyone would have expected. Except the cost of that was Maddy's mental health. She killed herself in her first year at UPenn.
Fagan writes in a very sobering way, without romanticizing anything. In between the story of Maddy is Fagan's own story, of her own struggles as a basketball player in college and how pressure to be perfect also affected her own mental health.
And to some extent, I felt it too. That dreadful feeling that you were letting everyone down if you didn't always project this perfect image of yourself. That you didn't work in the most prestigious company or didn't have the best grades. And if affected my own mental health.
Fagan makes the point that in today's world, with our options to connect has meant that while we connect more with people, we connect more shallowly. Because everything is public, we have been trained to always put a cheery face on before posting on social media, furthering the gap between what we feel and what we show.
I highly recommend this book. And after reading this, perhaps reach out to someone and ask them how they really are. Because in this world we need each other, we need real connections, we need the difficult talks, the honest emotions and the ability to be ourselves.
Kate Fagan tells the story of Madison Holleran honestly and without sensationalizing it. Maddy was a promising student, a star athlete, well-liked with a supportive family in high school. She was part of a dominant soccer team and switching to track, she won the state championship. But underneath this facade, this flawless image was someone who was constantly pressured to be perfect. Maddy switched to University of Pennsylvania, an Ivy League school and here the image was kept up, not perfectly but certainly much better than anyone would have expected. Except the cost of that was Maddy's mental health. She killed herself in her first year at UPenn.
Fagan writes in a very sobering way, without romanticizing anything. In between the story of Maddy is Fagan's own story, of her own struggles as a basketball player in college and how pressure to be perfect also affected her own mental health.
And to some extent, I felt it too. That dreadful feeling that you were letting everyone down if you didn't always project this perfect image of yourself. That you didn't work in the most prestigious company or didn't have the best grades. And if affected my own mental health.
Fagan makes the point that in today's world, with our options to connect has meant that while we connect more with people, we connect more shallowly. Because everything is public, we have been trained to always put a cheery face on before posting on social media, furthering the gap between what we feel and what we show.
I highly recommend this book. And after reading this, perhaps reach out to someone and ask them how they really are. Because in this world we need each other, we need real connections, we need the difficult talks, the honest emotions and the ability to be ourselves.
An undeniably sad story about a Ivy League athlete’s suicide. I think there is a lot to learn from Maddy but this book offers very little. Mostly, Fagan rambles about the dangers of social media (duh) without offering any sort of facts / statistics. And she really does ramble — to the point of neglecting both Maddy’s story and the discussion of suicide and mental health. There is next to no discussion of depression. Not once are the scientific causes even discussed. Instead, Fagan offers seemingly irrelevant texts from Maddy’s past (she literally includes an essay Maddy wrote about loving peanut butter???) and a narrative of Maddy’s life that is conjecture at best. There are constant references Maddy's frame of mind even though Fagan has no way of knowing what it was, and the linear account of the months leading up to the suicide are spotty.
I think I’d just read the article this book expands on. Not worth the extra tidbits.
I think I’d just read the article this book expands on. Not worth the extra tidbits.
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
fast-paced
Insightful, real, important. This book makes me think in the best ways--as an educator, as a participant in social media, and as a human.
This was tough read; I had to set it aside for a while. Highly recommend for educators / parents of preteens & teens.
This should be required reading for every coach. There are snippets of the book that I felt did not flow with the rest from a reader standpoint, but the overall story is extremely important.
Absolutely gutted finishing this book. I originally read Kate Fagan’s article on ESPN about Madison and remember how I couldn’t stop thinking about her story. I was so drawn in to the idea that perfectionism and social media could cause such a spiral for the girl who seemed to have it all.
I work with student athletes and see so much of Maddy in them. I feel more informed and more empathetic after reading this. Beautifully written and compelling from start to finish.
I work with student athletes and see so much of Maddy in them. I feel more informed and more empathetic after reading this. Beautifully written and compelling from start to finish.
Every educator, every health care worker, every first responder, every parent, every coach, every college student, every human should read this book. We need to talk.