Grosse Pointe

My initial research goal was to find a connection/correlation between current social media trends surrounding mental health/depression and how depression is represented in film. My initial concern arose after noticing an increase in social media trends romanticizing different mental health disorders, more specifically depression, and targeted towards young women. Starting in the 1990s with “heroin chic”, we can see specific trends taking over that seem to glorify poor mental and physical health. Now, in the 2020s, this has evolved into trends like “ballerinacore” or “crying makeup” blowing up on TikTok. The goal during this time should be to destigmatize mental health issues, but instead, these social media trends build up false and potentially harmful stereotypes surrounding depression. 

One of the biggest contributors to this issue is the film industry, so that is where we begin.

I developed my own research method based on common statistical studies. I used a SRS method to determine which movies I would be watching. I took movies from an IMBD list called “Sad Girl Corner” and divided them up by decade, going from the 1990s to the present. Within each decade and by director (male or female), I numbered each movie, then used a random number generator to select either 1 or 2 films. The final selection of films includes:

• Girl, Interrupted (1999), dir. James Mangold

• The Virgin Suicides (1999), dir. Sofia Coppola

• Prozac Nation (2001), dir. Erik Skjoldbjærg

• White Oleander (2002), dir. Peter Kosminsky

• Lost in Translation (2003), dir. Sofia Coppola

• Fish Tank (2009), dir. Andrea Arnold

• Black Swan (2010), dir. Darren Aronofsky

• Lovelace (2013), dir. Rob Epstein, Jeffrey Friedman

• Palo Alto (2013), dir. Gia Coppola

• American Honey (2016), dir. Andrea Arnold

• X (2022), dir. Ti West 

• Priscilla (2023), dir. Sofia Coppola

I have pulled a full list of symptoms of depression from the National Institute of Mental Health, which I will be using as I watch each film. I will code for each symptom within each film and take note of how many times each symptom appears within it. 

Just based on what I’ve personally witnessed in terms of social media trends, there seems to be a fascination—along with many misconceptions—surrounding depression. This is happening at a time when adolescents worldwide are experiencing a mental health crisis, and in America, young women seem to be suffering the most. Since I’ve noticed that many of these trends stem from various popular films, I figured seeing how depression is portrayed in these films may provide an explanation for how it’s portrayed on social media. The goal from there is to figure out how to portray depression and other mental health issues so as to avoid feeding into harmful misconceptions and stereotypes.