We teach children to brush their teeth before they need a root canal. We run fire drills before the building is on fire. We don’t wait for a crisis to hand someone a map of the emergency exits.

And yet, when it comes to mental health, we do exactly that.

We wait. We watch. And when a child is already overwhelmed by worry or anxiety, we hand them the tools we could have given them years earlier  when they were calm, curious, and ready to learn.

This is not a mental health problem. It is a timing problem.

My mission is simple: mental health education belongs in the same category as maths and English. Not as an afterthought. Not as a crisis response. As a foundation.

Children are not too young to understand worry. They are too young not to.

That’s why I visit primary schools, libraries, and community spaces to run free, story-based workshops for children in Years 1 and 2. In a fun, age-appropriate way, we explore what worry actually is, why it shows up, and crucially what to do when it does. Not when things fall apart. Now. While they can practise, build confidence, and carry those skills with them.