Opinion | Autism, Mental Health and Joe Biden: 13 Progressive Young Women Discuss

As we were planning our latest Times Opinion focus groups, we noticed recent studies, data, essays and polling about high rates of young women who identify as liberal or progressive saying they feel anxious or depressed or have been told they have mental health conditions. To try to better understand this data and the pressures and self-awareness among some young Americans today, we gathered 13 progressive young women to talk about their experiences with mental health and, more broadly, whether Generation Z faces unique mental health challenges or if Gen Zers are just more open about their struggles than previous generations are.

“For older generations, it was a bad thing to be diagnosed with something,” said Alexa, 23, one of the participants. “It was almost shameful to your community and your family. For us, I think it’s a relief when you get a diagnosis because it can give you an explanation and it’s not as lonely.”

Despite the common experience of dealing with mental health challenges, only three of the women said they regularly felt down, depressed or hopeless. Twelve said they were optimistic about the future. “Our generation puts more time and effort into focusing on ourselves, especially improving mental health and the human side of ourselves,” said Molly, 25, another participant. Boomers or her parents’ generation, she added, “would just say, “Oh, suck it up. Get over it.” They’re very not sensitive about our human side. And I feel very proud that we’re focusing more on ourselves.”

How do their political outlooks factor into things? Several of the young women said that being progressive or liberal made them more inclined to educate themselves on issues, more accepting of differences — more open. Still, despite their overall optimism about the future, the group had only negative things to say about the current top contenders in the 2024 presidential election. Some of the participants described President Biden as “disappointing,” “moderate, bummer” and “an example of what not to do as a president,” and some said Donald J. Trump was “manipulative,” “scary” and “misogynistic.” Many of them were pretty down on Vice President Kamala Harris, too.

Asked what they thought about Mr. Trump’s recent indictment in Manhattan, Jdythe, 18, another participant, seemed to speak for several others in the group, saying, “I don’t see how whatever happens with Trump is going to affect me directly because, ultimately, I’m just going to have to roll with the punches anyway.”