A review by jace_stew
What Made Maddy Run: The Secret Struggles and Tragic Death of an All-American Teen by Kate Fagan

4.0

Yes, the irony of writing a review of this book on a social media site is not lost on me. After being quite taken with the ESPN W article ‘Spilt Image’ I was very glad that Kate Fagan would be expanding it to book form that uncovers the numerous stresses that teens undergo in that turbulent time of transitioning to independence from home life in college along with the pressures of being a dedicated student athlete. The book painstakingly details the gradual and tragic loss of mental health using actual messages, texts, and social media posts from Madison Holleran. Depicting the new kinds of anxiety that the advent of social media has brought on top of the usual stressors of that age group, not as an anti-Internet sharing lecture but to serve as an ever more important reminder that what we present to others outwardly is sometimes not all what we are in private to ourselves. While the book presents research that is still in its infancy, it works as a call for more openness and interaction in our regular lives outside of our cultivated Internet personas.