Statewide Arts Contest Celebrates Youth Mental Health Expression
- Jun 30
- 5 min read
Abby Bennett was hospitalized at the age of 15 when she was struggling to cling onto life. During this period, she promised herself to fold 1,000 paper cranes, which are a symbol of peace, love, hope, and lifelong health. She says the act of folding and creating something beautiful from a simple object became a symbolic act that she fell in love with. During her time in the hospital, crafting origami became her lifeline.
“I made it to the next day because I kept folding.”
In 2024, Abby also learned of an expressive arts contest called Magnify Voices during her stay in inpatient care. The contest encouraged her to transform her complicated emotions into an immersive portrait of herself. She painted a watercolor piece of her heart composed of bandages, stitches, blossoming flowers, paper cranes, and words flowing through its veins. She became a finalist for the art contest.
Magnify Voices Expressive Art Contest is an annual arts celebration organized and hosted by the New Hampshire Children’s System of Care since 2019. According to CSoC, the event aims to “empower youth to convey their experience with mental health challenges through creative artwork.”
Concern over mental health has become a top challenge that young people find themselves navigating in today’s world. According to the Pew Research Center, nearly a third of U.S. teens ages 13–17 say anxiety and depression are extremely common among school peers. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that four in 10 high school students reported continuous feelings of loneliness, sadness, or hopelessness in 2023.
Magnify Voices has been facilitating an open, inclusive space for students (grades 5–12) to share their voice through art. This year, around 80 students from every corner of the Granite State entered the contest. Twelve students are honored as finalists, and members of the public cast votes for a people’s choice award. Winners are given an opportunity to discuss their creations during the contest’s formal ceremony, which was held this year on May 27 at the Kingswood Arts Center in Wolfeboro.
“This one program has blossomed into so many opportunities for these young people,” says Tricia Brannen, a committee member for the Magnify Voices event. Tricia is also the executive director of YouthWell NH, an organization founded in 2023 that strives to address mental health issues through funding initiatives, partnerships, and policy advocacy. She says she is inspired every year to see the hope young people give one another.
Magnify Voices also aims to reduce stigma surrounding mental health and encourage young people to take on advocacy roles, Tricia says. According to her, youth voices are crucial to creating policy change that promotes positive mental health, especially as need continues to increase for mental health services.
After Erin Murphy won the Magnify Voices People’s Choice Award in 2021, opportunities began to line up for mental health advocacy and speaking roles. She learned about the contest through a TV video teacher at Salem High School when she was 15 years old. As lifelong videographers, Erin and her cousin, Amy, set out to film a video for the contest and “make something bigger than ourselves,” Erin says. She submitted a short film titled “Dear Younger Me,” a compilation of four letters that she, Amy, and their friends and family members wrote and addressed to their younger selves. Erin and Amy used footage set in the White Mountains, the town of Windham, and at the beach for the film.
As a finalist, Erin had the opportunity to speak during her first ceremony. Different organizations then reached out to her once they noticed her talent for public speaking. She credits Magnify Voices for giving her the foundation to start her advocacy journey.
In the years since attending her first ceremony, Erin has opened up about her challenges with mental health. She has worked with groups such as NAMI NH to speak and present at events and conferences as part of the organization’s Next Gen Ambassador program. She has advocated on legislation supporting training for school staff in suicide prevention. Erin was even invited back to Magnify Voices as the keynote speaker of the 2026 ceremony.
“I really do feel like I've made a difference with all sorts of people,” Erin says. “I just did an event, and it was with older people. I think they said the average age was like 75. … There were a lot of people that came up after the fact and were like, ‘I've never heard somebody speak so openly about this.’”
Erin says most people care about mental health issues. However, some don’t realize that mental health challenges are more prevalent in the modern world compared to decades ago.
“We have a lot of addiction issues; we have a lot of people that are experiencing homelessness; we have high rates of unemployment,” Erin says. “A lot of these things can really be traced back, in my opinion, to a mental health issue systematically.”
Art is an effective education tool because it turns an invisible problem into a tangible snapshot of what one person is experiencing silently, Erin says. Abby Bennett has a similar belief. To her, creating and sharing art at an event like Magnify Voices can help “bring the hope out that has been hiding.”
“Art always knows what you need; whether it be a way to express yourself, a way to help you understand your emotions, or to give you a reason to stay,” Abby says. “Art is really powerful. And looking in on that world through others' art pieces, it has just been an incredible way to experience their message.”
In the years since holding onto hope during her stay in inpatient care, Abby has completed her mission of folding 1,000 cranes. She places them in random locations to spread her hope with those who may need it.
After Abby was a finalist in 2024, she was invited the following year to be the contest’s keynote speaker. Attending in person this time, she was struck by the artwork and the stories behind the brush strokes.
“Magnify Voices is really an amazing celebration,” Abby says. “Getting to be in a room filled with people who have gone through similar things and are willing to be open about it in different ways — it’s an amazing experience to be in that room. And even just submitting your art and have your art be a part of it, that is also just amazing.”
Anyone interested in looking at each submission from this year’s Magnify Voices contest can view them online here. A full livestream of this year's celebration can be viewed below.
If you or someone you know is experiencing hardship, help is available. NAMI NH provides a list of crisis and support hotlines, with many offering 24/7 support. To view that list, click here.