Dear Evan Hansen: What Media Gets Wrong About Mental Health

Dear Evan Hansen exploits mental illness and profits from real people's pain. This movie is more than just a bad musical adaptation: it's a case study of all the myths Hollywood sells about mental health and grief. Benj Pasek and Justin Paul's inspirational-sounding songs sell empty messages. The musical and the movie tells a story about grief that features a troubled teenager lying for attention, reinforcing old and hurtful myths about mental illness. This video essay is an open letter to everyone who tells stories from someone who lost a loved one to the despair that Dear Evan Hansen plays for drama. Please be careful with the stories you tell. SOURCES: The Real-Life Story That Inspired Dear Evan Hansen, What Will Change in the London Run, and More From New York Comic Con https://www.playbill.com/article/the-... SOCIAL MEDIA: Twitter:   / xandrakane   Tiktok:   / alexandra.kane   OTHER VIDEOS: Inside, Bo Burnham and the Internet’s Identity Crisis    • Bo Burnham, Inside and the Internet's Iden...   (Film criticism meets internet culture analysis!) Cheugy: A Millennial Tragic Comedy    • Cheugy: A Millennial Tragic Comedy   (What the latest funny word to come off of Tiktok says about the central sadness of the Millennial experience) Tiktok Beauty, Instagram Reality    • Tiktok Beauty, Instagram Reality: Social M...   (How social media makes us feel ugly)