'100 Days of Wisdom': Metro Detroit teen hopes to inspire, help others with book about mental health

Jack Leyden started writing during the COVID-19 pandemic.

"I started, not keeping a journal, just kind of writing various things down, like I would just write some high and low points in my day and reflect on it," the 17-year-old said.

That writing morphed into something else.

"He'd come downstairs in the summer and say, ‘Well, I'm on day 13,' and I would say, ‘Day 13 of what?’ and he's like, 'My book,’" his mother, Amy Leyden said.

Jack Leyden, a junior at Salem High School wrote "100 Days of Wisdom" to help others. 

"A lot of what I talk in the book is you can't change what happens to you, but you can change how you react to it," Jack Leyden said.

He dedicated the book to his therapist, who he started seeing while dealing with anxiety during his freshman year.

"I started therapy two years ago. It is a tremendous tool," he said.

He hopes his book can start a conversation about mental health.

"How many people who have said how brave Jack is to share his story and just share his thoughts because it's just, it's not something that most people are willing to do," his father Tom Leyden said. "It's getting increasingly more common – it's OK to not be OK."

Jack Leyden said he hopes what he has learned in therapy and in life can help others realize that, too.

"They're not revolutionary ideas – they're just forgotten ideas," he said.

His mother did the illustrations for the cover, and it was self-published before Christmas. Proceeds from the book are being donated to nonprofits. You can buy it here.