Joanna Kenrick is the author of five children's books, and is also a part-time teacher of History and Drama. She lives in Oxford. Joanna researched Red Tears meticulously, spending months on dedicated websites and attending psychiatric sessions.

In this interview with Polli Allen, Joanna talks about what led her to write about self harm and her novel Red Tears.

Download the full version of this interview in PDF format

Firstly, and quite simply, why self-injury? Why did you choose for Emily to go down this route rather than any other coping mechanism?

Well, partly because I already knew quite a lot about eating disorders (the more ‘obvious’ coping method) since I had grown up at a time when young girls were being educated about them. Purely from a personal point of view, I found self-harm more psychologically interesting. As a non-self-harmer who’s never had depression, I could ‘understand’ why someone might become anorexic, but it was much harder to understand why someone would cut themselves. Also, I confess, I did think about the marketing/publicity angle for the book in advance, and though there were already lots of (excellent) books for teens about anorexia and teen pregnancy etc, I couldn’t find anything that was specifically about self-harm, so I knew there was a gap in the market.

Do you feel that in Red Tears you followed conventions set in other adolescent ‘issue’ novels which tackle different subjects?

To a certain extent, yes. I think it’s important to explain how the central character starts slipping down the slope in the first place. As an author, you pile on the problems one by one so that in the end the character has to crack. Then you start to build them back up again and hopefully show your reader that there is a way out, even if it’s full of hard decisions. However, I resisted making the ending too ‘pat’ because of my research. I spoke to so many self-harmers and they all told me ‘don’t have a happy ending. It doesn’t just go away; it’s with you for the rest of your life’. So I think possibly the ending of Red Tears is a little bleaker than some other ‘issue’ books.

 Do you think any factor in Emily’s life affected her feelings and behaviour any more than others?

I think losing her friends was a huge factor and possibly outweighed everything else. As adults, we often forget how crucial our friendships were at that age. Your friends keep you stable – they provide entertainment, education and emotional protection. You rely on them for everything – they validate who you are and help you to develop into an adult. So if your friends suddenly decide they don’t want to be your friends any more, where does that leave you? Who are you now? Being a child means not having full emotional and mental development – so it’s very hard to look at things objectively. Being rejected by your friends has far more of an impact than being rejected by your enemies.

How and why did you decide for Emily’s parents to react to finding out about her self-injury in the ways which they did?

That scene was one I actually wrote before I even started the book. I wrote the ‘finding out scene’ and the ‘bolognaise’ chapter way before anything else. Then I sent them to a couple of self-harmers with whom I was corresponding, and they were very positive about the scenes. Sadly, the way Emily’s parents react is practically the ‘norm’. Of the self-harmers whose parents had found out, not one of them said their parents reacted in a positive way. Some parents did later manage to reach a level of understanding and sympathy, but for all of them the first reaction was one of shock, horror and disgust – and then, reading between the lines, guilt. Teenagers don’t understand (and why should they?) that parents often blame themselves for their children’s problems. I wanted Emily’s experience to reflect those of so many other people – and from the letters and messages I’ve had from readers, it seems to have struck a chord.

Do you think Emily’s father’s reaction in any way fuelled her behaviour?

I think Emily feels very let down by her father’s reaction and she doesn’t realise that he’s simply terrified of her behaviour and has no idea how to handle it – so he withdraws instead of facing it. She also doesn’t realise that in a way he feels betrayed by her actions, because they have always had a close relationship and she’s been keeping this terrible secret from him. I don’t think his reaction fuels her harming directly, but I do think that she feels she has nowhere to turn since she doesn’t want to talk to her mother. In a way, I wanted to show both extreme reactions – Emily’s mother wants to talk about it all the time, whereas her father doesn’t want to talk about it at all. Like many parents, he hopes that by not tackling the problem directly, it might just go away by itself.

Do you feel that parents could benefit from reading Red Tears and books like it, or do you feel that adolescents could feel that parents were intruding?

I do think that parents could benefit. I have had several messages from children who have said they are going to show my book to their parents ‘because then they’ll understand what I’m going through’. I think it could be used as a tool to open a channel of communication. Parents could ask their children ‘do you identify at all with Emily?’ or ‘Have you ever been in a similar situation, and if so, how can I help?’ I suspect that often parents are terrified of asking too many questions because they think it will push their child away, whereas in fact the child is desperate to share their thoughts and feelings so that they don’t feel so alone.

Would you have considered showing more of Emily’s brother’s feelings on having a sister dealing with depression and self-injury as it is documented that the siblings of children with psychiatric problems often feel ignored or do not understand hat is going on.

 No. This is Emily’s story. Anthony, although realistic, is still basically a peripheral character. I was keen to keep the focus on Emily, although I hope that Anthony’s feelings are clear to the reader, as he often says ‘why doesn’t anyone tell me what’s going on?’ Anthony’s story would be an interesting one to explore, but not in Red Tears.

Why did you decide to show Emily’s visit to casualty in the way that you did? Do you feel that the way she is treated is realistic? Is it acceptable?

In the first draft, I didn’t really know what would happen in a visit to A&E. I sort of guessed (knowing a bit about the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Team) what would take place. However, I sent the first draft to a Clinical Psychologist at the Centre for Suicide Research in Oxford, and she was kind enough to give me an hour of her time and talk me through the procedure at the local hospital – so I know that what happens to Emily is realistic for some hospitals anyway. As for acceptable, Emily’s experience is a lot more positive than many self-harmers’, and I think the NHS really is trying to provide appropriate care.

 If Emily had developed a stronger relationship with Patrice do you think that things could have worked out differently for her?

No, because Patrice is damaged too and the two of them would not be able to support each other.

Do you think that Emily could have benefited from an increased awareness of self-injury (e.g websites, books)?

Not necessarily. I know several self-harmers who are the most clued-up people you could find – and they still self-harm. Knowing why and how does not take the urge away. She might have become more aware of her own feelings earlier and been able to start implementing alternative coping methods. Lots of people do use the internet for this – it provides useful suggestions about what to do if you are feeling triggered. However, some self-harmers find that reading about self-harm actually makes them feel triggered in the first place! So I’m not sure that knowing more about the condition itself would have benefited Emily in a practical way. Knowing all of that is no help if you are still lonely and depressed.

What do you see the future holding for Emily after the end of the book?

I would like to think that she beats the self-harm within the year and finds new, supportive friends at college. I would like to think she’d re-discover her love of art and perhaps go on to do a degree in creative design. I’d like to think she stays harm-free. However, from my research, I know that many self-harmers return to it periodically, when their lives are out of control or they suffer an emotional trauma, so I suspect that Emily may well find herself harming in the future. However, knowing she has beaten it once before should give her new hope that she can beat it again. And maybe if she has learned to value herself through therapy, she wouldn’t ever need to resort to self-harming in the future. Let’s hope so!

Advice on dealing with self injury

 http://www.selfharm.org/files/teachers-si-factsheet-lifesigns-2007-v2.pdf

2007-07-21