What's Up With Everyone? A qualitative study on young people's perceptions of cocreated online animations to promote mental health literacy

Introduction Adolescence and young adulthood are especially critical times to learn about mental health, given that 75% of mental health issues are developed by the age of 24. Animations have great potential to effectively deliver mental health information to young people. A series of five short animated films to promote mental health literacy were created with and for young people in partnership with the multi-award-winning independent animation studio, Aardman Animations. The aim of this study was to explore young people's perceptions of the cocreated animated films. Methods Seven Youth Juries were conducted to capture young people's opinions and recommendations about the content related to mental health literacy and presentation style of the cocreated animated films. Thematic analysis was used to analyse the audio transcripts. Results Many participants reported a view that the animated films had the potential to promote mental health literacy, especially for understanding mental health and reducing stigma. Some recommendations were provided to improve the films, such as including subtitles and having a better transition to the companion website. Conclusion Cocreated animations have great potential to promote the mental health literacy of young people. We hope that the findings from the present study will inform future media development to make them as effective as possible. Patient or Public Contribution Young people were actively involved in the development, production, implementation and evaluation (up to the time before data analysis) of the animated films.