Lost Innocence: Reporting on Mental Health in the Black Community
The story was originally published in Word in Black with support from the USC Annenberg Center for Health Journalism’s 2022 Data Fellowship.
Chrishana Bunting, 16, poses for a photo inside the Lincoln High School library in San Diego on Feb. 13, 2023.
(Anissa Durham/Word In Black)
Protecting our Black children can look a few different ways in the Black community. For some parents, calling Black girls ‘fast’ is done to prepare them for the real world. And some teachers see Black boys as men.
But neither of these examples is really protecting Black children. Lost Innocence: The Adultification of Black Children is a seven-part series that details the real-life experiences of Black childhood. Each story guides readers through the different ways Black children experience adultification. And how it has impacted the health of the Black community.
That’s why in a March 16 Twitter Space discussion, “Lost Innocence: Reporting on Mental Health in the Black Community,” Word In Black’s managing director Liz Courquet-Lesaulnier and health data reporter Anissa Durham had an unfiltered discussion on what it was like to report the series.
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