They preferred it when I watched movies with them, covered my self-harm bruises or otherwise drew attention away from my misery-similarly to Skim’s peers. While my own classmates weren’t the hugging type, they believed exhibiting depressive symptoms was disgusting. Instead of focusing on Skim, the artist shows the president’s face, which shows no sign of concern or affection towards Skim. At one point the club president hugs Skim out of the blue. Girls Celebrate Life believes in treating depression with cheer, adorning a bulletin board with pictures and exclamation points, hosting movie nights, and organizing a school dance. Skim’s guidance counselor, specialists brought in to aid students, and a student-led club called Girls Celebrate Life are all reminiscent of “help” I received in high school. If someone tried to cheer me up, it was clear if their words were to make themselves look good, or if they actually cared.

While my adolescent depression impacted my judgement and made concentrating difficult, I could pinpoint other people’s sincerity. If she has depression, it’s expressed very different from mine. Her grades slip during the book, and there are times when her mood is best described as empty or downhearted. The people at Skim’s school imply that they believe she’s depressed and make gestures at helping her, while Skim resists their armchair diagnoses. People told me that I wasn’t depressed, or that I was wrong about its root cause.

I was self-aware of my depression and demanded that I get help I thought was appropriate, while Skim’s experience is far subtler. Skim is not diagnosed as depressed in the book, and going by my high school experience alone, I can’t tell whether she is or isn’t depressed. Her classmates and the guidance counselor obsess over suicide and depression, singling out Skim as a suicide risk for not being like the other girls. Shortly after the story begins, the ex-boyfriend of a classmate dies by suicide, sending Skim’s all-girl’s high school into a frenzy. It’s a slice-of-life story following Kimberley Keiko Cameron, commonly known as “Skim,” and her experiences with religion, friendship, romance, and school. Skim is a graphic novel written and drawn by Mariko and Jillian Tamaki, respectively.

Skim jillian tamaki