In this panel, 13-year-old Comic Book Author Shelbi Webb, and her parents, Jason and Maggie, discuss when Shelbi was an 11-year-old victim of bullying, experienced four suicides in two years, and has watched friends and family endure LGBTQ+ intolerance, mental illness and addiction. This has helped Shelbi grow closer to her family and become a champion for kids while bridging the communication gap between youth and adults. Jason and Maggie talk about the struggle of seeing their young daughter suffer emotionally and finding the appropriate way to talk to her about her feelings while building trust. Shelbi and her family share a message of "therapy" not being a bad word. The vehicle for distributing the message is Sugar Glider a Comic with a Cause. Featuring the popular band X Ambassadors in the first series of the comic book, the teen hero gains super powers including increased speed, heightened metabolism but most important is an enlarged empathy. The antagonists are personifications of problems that adolescents face every day from bullying to self image and from addiction to suicide. This comic is a platform for adults and kids to talk to one another in a non-confrontational manner about real-life topics that are serious issues with the youth in the world today. Sugar Glider is on a move to create change and offer hope and healing.
