Skip to main content
Add as a preferred source on Google


Cook Center, Share My Lesson Platform Offering New Student Mental Health Animated Series, Extension Lessons

  • By Kristal Kuykendall
  • 01/20/22

The Cook Center for Human Connection today announced a partnership with the American Federation of Teachers’ Share My Lesson platform to make a new teen mental health animated series and associated lessons available for free to the 1.9 million educators using the platform.

“My Life is Worth Living” is an animated series about teen mental health and suicide prevention and is produced by Wonder Media and the Cook Center, a Utah-based nonprofit whose mission is eradicating suicide and advocating for mental health and wellness. The series is available in English, Spanish, Mandarin, Japanese, and Portuguese and has earned numerous film awards including winner of the Utah Film Festival.

The first episodes of the series debuted in mid-2021 and many are available on YouTube. The series was developed with guidance from former the president of the American Association of Suicidology, Dr. James Mazza, and a team of adolescent mental health medical experts.

“My Life is Worth Living” features relatable teen characters with each story modeling positive, research-based mental wellness skills for grades 7–12. The characters wrestle with challenges commonly reported by teens such as depression, bullying, addiction, LGBTQ+ rejection, and abuse, and within each episode, the characters discover new strategies to cope and thrive.

Each episode will have printable extension lessons and discussion guides for educators, counselors, and parents; the content will be released on Share My Lesson later this month, the Cook Center said.

The series comes as the pandemic has intensified what education officials have called mental health crisis among students, with the U.S. Surgeon General last month declaring youth mental health an “urgent national public health crisis.”

“Research shows that connections to friends, family, and community can be the difference between life and death. Storytelling is known to create connections and combat loneliness,” the Cook Center said in its announcement. “Stories can break down the stigma of talking about mental health needs and thoughts of suicide.”

Created and maintained by the AFT, Share My Lesson is a free website where educators, parents and caregivers, paraprofessionals, union and non-union members, educational partners, and higher education professionals can finding and sharing the best educational resources available for their specific needs.

The animation was produced by Wonder Media CEO Terry Thoren, former CEO of Klasky Csupo, the company that incubated the Simpsons and created Rugrats, The Wild Thornberrys, and Rocket Power. To learn more about the series, visit www.mylifeisworthliving.org.

About the Author

Kristal Kuykendall is editor, 1105 Media Education Group. She can be reached at [email protected].


Featured

  • Abstract background with digital shield made of data particles glowing blue blocking against cyber attacks

    AI Attacks Push Organizations Toward Autonomous Cybersecurity Defense

    Artificial intelligence is raising the stakes of cyber conflict as attackers use the technology to accelerate reconnaissance, uncover vulnerabilities, and launch attacks faster than many security teams can respond, according to a new report from agentic AI security company Kai.

  • Digital document and folder warning alert with error

    When Cyber Attacks Disrupt Learning, Recovery Matters More than Ever

    As schools become more dependent on digital platforms for instruction, grading, student services, and family communication, resilience depends not only on preventing attacks, but on how quickly leaders can restore trusted data, recover essential services, and keep disruptions from cascading across the school community.

  • A digital shield composed of glowing particles

    Microsoft Combines Sentinel and Defender Capabilities for Agentic Security Operations

    Microsoft is combining its security information and event management and threat protection products within Microsoft Defender, creating what the company calls an Integrated Security Operations Center built for an era of AI-driven attacks.

  • A glowing digital brain with neural connections and light trails

    AI Giants: It May Be Time to Slow Down

    Leaders in the artificial intelligence industry have warned for years that increasingly capable AI systems could eventually become dangerous, all the while continuing to race to build them. Now, their sentiments have changed.