Hello everyone!
Many of us are somewhat familiar some the latest stories floating around on the app and it is very clear that we're not happy with some content featured in some of them. This lead to me asking myself a question: “How can I make my story more representative without making offending others but raise awareness at the same time?” Well I follow these amazing episode pages on Instagram as well some amazing authors who make some excellent points on diversity but one thing I find lacking is the mention of non-stereotypical characters with [one or more] mental illnesses. I personally believe that these characters should exist in order to raise awareness about said mental illness[es] rather than simply for the sake of diversity (even though it is very important) as it is an extremely sensitive topic but many fail to acknowledge this fact.I am aware that many authors tend to avoid writing such characters not only to avoid offending people and making incorrect assumptions but often because we lack serious or reliable knowledge about various mental illnesses due to this topic being one where a simple web search will not be enough to be reliable research. The fact that person may choose not to include this topic is absolutely fine for reasons which I have previously stated but I also am aware that there are various authors who do want to include this topic in their stories, mostly for raising awareness or sharing their story [I hope] therefore, I have created this thread for people with questions as well as people who would like to voice opinions or share their advice on this topic to be able to communicate and discuss mental illnesses.
So comment below on what you would like to see (or not see) on Episode when mental illnesses are involved. Feel free to comment whether you are someone with a mental illness and you have been offended or misunderstood or if you know someone in that position or even if you just have a question you want answered.
[Here] is the link to a document where all the replies from the original thread old forums has been saved.
Please remember that we are all entitled to our own opinions but please be considerate of other people’s feelings.
~ Yeon