These teenagers carry the weight of the world on their shoulders. Mental health declines

Elias Avalos felt like he was going around in circles his freshman year of high school, losing motivation and burning out. He juggled four AP classes and experienced the strain of being the child of immigrants from El Salvador.

“I’ve been dealing with feelings of burnout and not belonging for a while now,” says the now 17-year-old. “I think how I really ground myself when I feel like this is through skateboarding. It’s a hobby that separates itself from any job I have so I can de-stress.”

He is one of a growing number of black and Latino boys who are left to fend for themselves with their mental health. C 2026 Children Now report scorecard94% of the state’s youth aged 14-25 report a mental health problem on average per month, with stress and anxiety being the most commonly reported problems.

In the list of California Department of Health and Human Services websitethere are a number of crisis hotlines, mental health and wellness resources, and youth resource guides. But families say they find it too difficult to access care for their teens because of repeated health insurance denials, difficulty navigating mental health services and a lack of money. Advocates and parents are pushing for change.

When not skateboarding, Elias works as an intern at RYSE Youth Center in Richmond, where he researches factors influencing youth mental health. Working with a team of other young people, he says teenagers struggle with neglect, poor coping skills and a lack of access to youth-oriented spaces.

“So what I’ve learned is that here in Richmond, we don’t have access to a lot of support systems, which causes youth to go down different paths,” he says. “I know a lot of people in my neighborhood who have to sleep on the streets, sell drugs to support their families, and people I know have lost their lives. It’s a harsh reality that young people in Richmond really face.”

Kelly Hardy, one of the lead authors of the Children Now report, says these numbers reflect that children’s mental health is in crisis. She said mental health resources need to be available where young people are, in schools and in the community.

The Oakland-based nonprofit supported a law that would go into effect in 2024 allowing minors age 12 and older to consent to their own mental health treatment or counseling. This year, Children Now supports Senate Bill 363says Hardy, which would require health insurers to report the number of treatment refusals or modifications. The aim is to make mental health care services, such as counseling and therapy, more accessible to young people.

“We know that mental health impacts physical health and whether children turn to substance abuse to manage mental health symptoms. These are all consequences that can come from living a less healthy life,” she says. “We need to respond with care, treatment and services, not punishment.”

“I didn’t want to be a burden”

Elias never learned to process his emotions at home; some spaces were not safe for him, so he learned to keep things to himself. That’s part of the reason he never went to therapy. Like many young Latinos, he says, he feared that whatever was shared with a therapist would later be shared with parents.

“I didn’t want to burden my family and friends with my problems because I didn’t want to add anything extra,” he says of his time dealing with burnout. “Everybody goes through something. It’s something I have to get out of myself.”

When his family asks about the internship, he keeps it superficial—focusing on the values ​​he’s acquired rather than the harder realities he explores. “From my experience, I was brought up to be more of an observer than a speaker,” he says.

Dr. David K. Turner III, Assistant Professor of Black Lives Matter and Racial Justice at UCLA’s Luskin School of Public Affairs and Senior Advisor to Alliance for Boys and Men of Colorsays not enough is being done to address the systems in place that contribute to poor mental health outcomes for black and Latino boys. He points to systemic racism over criminalsztion of black childrenand the education system as long-standing structural problems.

“The over-criminalization of young people in schools often forces them to opt out of education. It demonstrates to these young men that they don’t matter, their opinions don’t matter, how they learn doesn’t matter and it creates a very dehumanizing environment for them,” he says. “That’s one of the main driving factors why these brothers don’t go on to college … because school has been a place of violence for them. When I say violence, I mean their spirit is broken.”

Often times, he says, children of color are left with an extra burden to carry and few support systems to lean on. Part of his work includes advocating for legislation that implements mental health services in school systems. And he works to dismantle the from school to prison pipeline, a disciplinary practice that disproportionately pushes black and Latino students out of school and into the criminal justice system.

Looking for “better ways”

Bryce Collins, a 16-year-old high school student, is fighting his own battle for the rights of black and Latino youth in the Los Angeles Unified School District. Since October, he has been working with Students deserve itorganization working to end the school-to-prison pipeline. And he advocates for more spaces in school that protect students’ mental health. The reason he joined this work, he says, is because too many young black men like him are dealing with racism, stress and anxiety — alone.

“Being a young black man lets me know how I have to approach some of these areas … I can’t do what everybody else is doing,” he says. “I don’t have the privilege. I have to hold myself to a higher standard because society doesn’t usually look at us that way.”

As the youngest of seven siblings, he says his older brothers helped prepare him for racial profiling. Around the age of 12, Bryce recalls starting to notice non-black people turning their heads and watching him when he entered different spaces. He knew it was because of the color of his skin. Lately, the pressures of being a young black man, preparing for college, and family life have added to his stress.

That pressure, he says, still sometimes forces him to shut down.

“My goal is to find better ways to manage my mental health other than not reacting to people,” says Bryce. “Even though it’s what I have to do for my mental health. I feel like I have to figure out better ways instead of not talking or letting people know what’s going on in my life.”