AT 14, I MADE A LIST OF THINGS TO DO BEFORE I DIED. AT 18, I’M STILL TICKING THEM OFF.”
The Mind of a 16-Year-Old by Adrien Kabunga is published internationally on World Mental Health Day, capturing teenage anxiety, loneliness, pressure and hope from inside the experience.
- At 14, Adrien Kabunga made a list of things he wanted to do before he died; four years later, at 18, he is still ticking them off and speaking openly about the mental health struggles behind it.
- The Mind of a 16-Year-Old was written entirely while Adrien was 16, giving an unusually immediate perspective on teenage anxiety, loneliness, pressure, identity, heartbreak and the experience of appearing fine while privately struggling.
- Raised across Congo and Uganda and now based in Dubai, Adrien’s story explores how teenage pressures can cut across countries and cultures, from fear of disappointing family to loneliness, academic expectations and not knowing who you are supposed to become.
- “Taylor Swift saved my life”: Adrien credits music with helping him through some of his lowest periods and is happy to discuss why songs can become a lifeline when teenagers struggle to articulate how they feel.
- Published on World Mental Health Day, the book lands as around one in five young people in England has a probable mental disorder, while Adrien can also speak about young people and mental health, growing up too fast, family pressure, first relationships and being labelled “mature for your age”.
At 14, Adrien Kabunga was struggling so badly with his mental health that he made a list of things he wanted to do before he died. Four years later, the now 18-year-old writer is still ticking things off that list, but from a very different place.
On 10 October, World Mental Health Day, Adrien will publish The Mind of a 16-Year-Old, an intensely personal collection of poetry and prose written entirely while he was 16. Published by Austin Macauley Publishers, the book captures anxiety, identity, loneliness, grief, self-doubt, relationships, pressure and fleeting joy from the perspective of somebody actually experiencing adolescence rather than looking back on it years later.
Its publication comes as figures continue to demonstrate the scale of the mental health challenges facing young people. The most recent NHS England survey found that around one in five children and young people aged eight to 25 had a probable mental disorder in 2023. This included 20.3% of eight to 16-year-olds, rising to 23.3% among 17 to 19-year-olds and 21.7% among those aged 20 to 25.
For Adrien, the statistics reflect something he understands personally: a young person can appear happy, successful and outwardly capable while experiencing a very different reality internally.
“I think adults sometimes talk about teenage mental health without actually asking teenagers what it feels like,” says Adrien. “When you’re 16, you don’t necessarily have the words to explain everything that is happening inside your head, and sometimes you don’t understand it yourself. This book is what was actually going through my head when I was 16.”
WRITTEN AT 16, NOT REMEMBERED YEARS LATER
Adrien began thinking about The Mind of a 16-Year-Old shortly before his sixteenth birthday. At the time, he describes himself as experiencing one of the happiest periods of his life, yet he also began to develop an intense anxiety about when that happiness might disappear.
He has spoken about becoming so used to things going well that he occasionally tried to sabotage his own happiness, while simultaneously questioning how much teenagers are expected to have figured out, how quickly their identities and emotions change and how many internal struggles can remain completely invisible to the people around them.
Much of the collection was written late at night, often following periods of anxiety, panic or overthinking. Adrien finished the manuscript only three minutes before midnight on the eve of his seventeenth birthday, meaning the entire book was completed while he was still 16.
That immediacy is central to the book. Adrien describes it as an “unfiltered real-time perspective”, capturing teenage experience before adulthood, distance and hindsight have had a chance to reinterpret it.
“When people talk about being a teenager later in life, they know what happened next,” says Adrien. “At 16, you don’t. Something can feel like your whole world because, at that moment, it is your whole world. I wanted the book to preserve that feeling.”
DIFFERENT COUNTRIES AND CULTURES, FAMILIAR TEENAGE PRESSURES
Adrien’s own experience of adolescence has crossed countries, cultures and education systems. Born in Beni, North Kivu, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, he spent periods of his childhood in different parts of Congo and in Kampala, Uganda, before later becoming based in Dubai. Academically advanced from a young age, he moved into online education, studied two school years simultaneously and completed high school at just 15.
However, many of the subjects explored in The Mind of a 16-Year-Old transcend geography: the pressure to succeed, fear of disappointing family, loneliness, identity, academic expectations, relationships, heartbreak and the unique experience of looking perfectly fine while privately struggling.
In international communities such as Dubai, young people may also be navigating several cultural frameworks at once, including family heritage, the country in which they live and the social world of school and friends. Attitudes towards mental health and seeking psychological support can differ substantially between families and communities, adding another layer to how comfortable a teenager feels admitting that something is wrong.
Adrien’s story is not presented as evidence of a problem belonging to one country or culture. UK statistics show just how widespread difficulties among young people are, while World Health Organisation data identifies adolescent mental health as an international issue.
“You can be 16 in Dubai, Congo, Uganda, Britain or somewhere completely different and the details of your life might be completely different,” says Adrien. “But you can still worry that you’re not good enough, feel lonely even when you’re surrounded by people, be scared of disappointing your family or have no idea who you are supposed to become. Those feelings can be surprisingly universal.”
GROWING UP FAST DOESN’T ALWAYS MEAN COPING BETTER
The Covid pandemic, accelerated education and spending increasing amounts of time around older students also contributed to Adrien’s feeling that he had grown up quickly. Now 18 and already halfway through a demanding Computer Science degree, he admits that one of the challenges he faces today is allowing himself to behave like an 18-year-old rather than feeling that he should already have the maturity and certainty of somebody in their mid-twenties.
“There is something adults say that sounds like a compliment: ‘You’re so mature for your age,’” says Adrien. “But sometimes I think we should ask why somebody has had to become mature so young and whether they’ve actually had the chance to be their age.”
Adrien is academically successful, but admits his personal passion lies much closer to English and writing than his current degree. The tension between academic achievement, family expectations and personal ambition is another subject he is willing to discuss, particularly at an age when young people are routinely asked to make choices about university, careers and their futures while still trying to establish who they are.
His experience of an intense and difficult teenage ‘situationship’ also shaped his understanding of mental health. While protecting the privacy of the other person involved, Adrien is happy to discuss the impact relationships can have on teenagers and why adults should be cautious about dismissing first love, heartbreak or complicated relationships as “just teenage drama”.
“TAYLOR SWIFT SAVED MY LIFE.”
Music has been particularly important throughout Adrien’s teenage years. A devoted Taylor Swift fan, he says her music helped him through some of his lowest moments, alongside artists including Little Mix, Gracie Abrams, Ariana Grande and IU. He describes music and writing as performing a similar function, allowing feelings that are difficult to articulate in ordinary conversation to become something tangible.
“Taylor Swift saved my life,” says Adrien. “There were times when music could put something into words that I didn’t know how to say myself. Hearing somebody articulate an emotion you thought belonged only to you can make you feel much less alone.”
His willingness to talk is especially relevant to the continuing conversation around men and mental health. The latest Office for National Statistics figures show that the registered suicide rate in England and Wales in 2024 was 17.6 deaths per 100,000 males compared with 5.7 per 100,000 females. These are overall population figures rather than teenage-specific rates, but they underline the substantial gender disparity that continues to exist.
Adrien does not claim to speak for all young people, but believes there is value in hearing others say openly that fear, vulnerability and emotional distress are not signs of weakness.
REAL VOICES ON WORLD MENTAL HEALTH DAY
The timing of the book’s publication is especially pertinent because the theme of World Mental Health Day 2026 is “Lived experiences heard: real voices, real change”. The World Health Organisation is using this year’s campaign to emphasise that the experiences of people who have lived with mental health difficulties provide knowledge that cannot be gained from research or professional training alone, while also making clear that no single individual can speak for everybody.
That is exactly how Adrien views The Mind of a 16-Year-Old. It is not intended as a guide to teenage mental health or a claim that every young person thinks as he did. Instead, it captures one 16-year-old’s experience at the moment it was happening, including the thoughts that were painful, contradictory and difficult to say aloud.
“If somebody reads the book and thinks, ‘I thought I was the only one who felt like this,’ then that means something to me,” says Adrien. “I am only 18 and I am still figuring things out myself, but I know how powerful it can be to realise that somebody else understands.”
The Mind of a 16-Year-Old by Adrien Kabunga is published by Austin Macauley Publishers on 10 October 2026, World Mental Health Day.
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