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The 15-year-old daughter of a Royal Mail postman, Adunola Showemimo, has had a book on mental health for teens, “People Like Us”, published last November. Adunola has worked at the Stanstead Airport cargo section as an OPG for 10 years.
His daughter, Esther, wrote the book with a 16-year-old friend, Daisy Robins, who shares her passion for helping young people with mental health issues. The book explores the reality of teens trying to navigate their way through a technology dictated world and the mental health issues they have. It took five months to plan, write and edit the book.
Esther said “The book is meant to be a tool to provide comfort and advice for teens across the world, who feel they have no one to care or provide support for them. I believe young people do not receive enough support on mental health issues.”
Esther is Head Girl at Harris Academy in Rainham, Essex and will shortly be starting sixth form college.
The launch event for “People Like Us” took place at Esther’s school on 21 November 2018 and was aimed at promoting a conversation surrounding technology and mental health issues in teens. The launch was covered by the Romford Recorder and a detailed story was carried on their on-line news pages.
The book is currently being sold on Amazon as a paperback in Europe, USA and Japan.
L-R: The cover of “People Like Us” and Esther Showemimo.
“I am extremely grateful to the Postal Family Fund for providing me with a grant that will allow me to travel and to buy tickets to events where I can publicise the book,” Esther said.
Esther does support work for Cypher App Ltd., a mental health company that encourages young people to anonymously share their feelings and seek advice from professional organisations regarding their wellbeing. It was the CEO of Cypher App, Seun Oshinaika, who encouraged Esther and her friend to write the book as a project, giving them only rough ideas around the topic to help them.
Esther is a co-founder at Cypher App. She moderates the site’s backend system, reading the comments and posts to flag up anything that goes against the safeguarding guidelines. She is also a member of the human resources team, helping to plan group meetings and social events for the team.
“At school, I was encouraged by the head of the school council to sign up for the Havering Youth Council when I was aged 12. I took part in many mental health related projects over a few years and I developed a love for helping people in need,” Esther said.
This set her on the path she is now on.