Dear readers, During this time of year, growth is all around us. Flowers are in bloom, the sun is shining, and the breeze is warm. Some of us will find ourselves sporting graduation caps and saying goodbye to classmates in crowded, humid gymnasiums. Others will pile into overpacked cars filled with whatever they can fit into their dorms. Or, in some cases, boxes filled with university memories that will find themselves in childhood rooms. Spring and summer are formative seasons for many reasons, which is why the decision for this magazine issue was simple. Welcome to The Growth Issue, the final edition of Volume 3! Growth can be described in…

Dear readers, When deciding on the theme for the first issue of Volume 3, I couldn’t help but think of the past two years and what theme would resonate most with our audience. The word resilience means to recover from something quickly – something that can spring back into shape. Resilience was all I could think of when I thought about how our world has recovered from these extremely difficult two years. During this time, we’ve gone through a pandemic, climate change, political unrest and so much more. We have risen above all this the best we could, and in 2022, we have seen a bit of light at the…

I have always been an animal lover. Growing up, I enjoyed visiting the zoo as a way to learn about animals that I would never be able to otherwise observe or encounter up close. But as time went on, the animal lover inside of me began to wonder if zoos are really as great as I thought them to be. It made me question: wouldn’t the animals be happier in the wild? Turns out, the answer to my question isn’t as easy as yes or no.  There are over 100 zoos across Canada, all of which operate differently depending on size, provincial regulations and the organization’s goals. In 2020, World…

Hello, Welcome to the last issue of volume two! Can you believe we’re here already? It seems like I joined the Youth Mind team just a few months ago when we were getting started on the summer 2020 issue, but here we are a full year later. In the winter, the team created The Reflection Issue where we looked back at the past and how it brought us all to where we are today. To wrap up this volume, we thought it fitting to explore the opposite—the future. So, without further ado, welcome to The Vision Issue. A huge thank you goes out to Haeley DiRisio, Youth Mind’s contributing editor,…

Hello, The birds are chirping, the flowers are blooming, the snow is melting. Okay, maybe that isn’t actually happening yet, it is only March in Ontario after all. But the season changed to spring just the other day and we are well on our way to warmer weather and brighter skies. I’ve been gazing out the window watching the clouds float by as I write this letter, and it reminded me of a time I was cloud watching with my sister many, many years ago.   Looking up at the big fluffy clouds, my sister pointed to one and said it was definitely a car. I remember following her pointing finger…

Hello, I hope you’re all bundled up in your coziest sweaters, curled up by a window watching the snowflakes drift by as you get ready to flip through the winter edition.  During the winter I often find that with the shorter days and isolation, sitting at home can be the perfect time to reminisce. And what better way to do this, than by reading our newest issue of Youth Mind—The Reflection Issue (thank you to Youth Mind’s talented creative editor, Lea Clarin, for pitching the idea!).  This theme is one that I was particularly excited about exploring and couldn’t wait to see what ideas the team would come up with.…

Despite the sadness that inevitably comes at the end of summer, I find myself quite excited about the upcoming autumn. Perhaps it’s a combination of my love for the holidays, my preference for cooler weather and the fact that I was born in November. But I also can’t deny that I’m partial to fall fashion. With the overbearing heat of the summer, the intolerable cold of the winter and the dreariness of spring, fall is really the only time of year you can truly exercise versatility with your wardrobe. You can dress certain pieces up or down, and you are basically guaranteed to look good as well as feel comfortable.…

Hi, Welcome to the second volume of Youth Mind magazine! Whether you’ve been here since day one with The Persistence Issue or you are a first-time reader, Youth Mind could not have done this without you. Thank you, dear readers, for your support in making this magazine what it is today as we go into our second year. If you’ve already skimmed to the bottom of this letter and realized Ramona’s signature isn’t there, I suppose it’s time to introduce myself. I’m Emma, the new managing editor, and it’s really nice to meet you all! I worked on the summer issue as a contributing editor, and I am absolutely honoured…

Hello, We are finally here. Welcome to the fourth and last issue of Volume 1 of Youth Mind. In some ways, I can’t believe we made it this far. After all, we’re a grassroots magazine that heavily relies on funding for us to create our quarterly issues. But in other ways, I’m not entirely surprised. I have a wonderful executive director, Sheri Adekola, who is passionate about our work, and always manages to find a way possible to make our publication thrive. I have a wonderful team of editors, reporters and social media coordinators, who are just as passionate when it comes to our work. Throughout the past year, we’ve…

Hi, I’m writing this to you freshly after finding out I’ve been rejected by one of my dream jobs. For those who don’t know me personally, I was looking forward to this job, very much so. I remember preparing every day by consuming even more news than usual and thinking of more effective ways to communicate such news, (if it wasn’t obvious, this was a journalism job) and thought of scenario-based questions that they would ask. I studied the publication that I would potentially be working for, inside out. I did the interview and was proud of it, because I stayed true to my heart. And then, fast forward to…

“Hi, I’m sorry for the delay in responding. I’ve been: – Keeping up with delivering the same output of work while having resources that helped maintain my well being become less accessible thanks to COVID-19 – Worrying about the long-term consequences of this pandemic – Trying not to let my mental health decline get the best of me – So tired. Just so tired,” is what I’ve been wanting to say for the past several months. I had many plans in communicating with you, fellow readers, as a means to connect. I planned on sending weekly newsletters. That reduced to bi-weekly newsletters. That then turned into monthly newsletters. And now,…

Hello, I hope this finds you well. Scratch that. You don’t deserve a message that’s similar to a business-like email. (You’ve probably received too many of those greetings, anyway.) Instead, treat this message like a text from a friend (except longer and probably more grammatically correct). So, let’s start again. Hello, how are you? This year has been A LOT, hasn’t it? Remember when we thought Cats would be the only horrifying thing we would deal with as we entered a new decade? Clearly, we were wrong. We’ve seen so much tragedy in the past few months: wildfires in Australia, a plane crash in Iran, a plane crash in India, deadly shootings…