FITTING INDIAN

Sixteen-year-old Nitasha’s gnawing feeling that she doesn’t fit in keeps growing.

At home, she feels burdened by her traditional Indian parents’ expectations that she excel academically and pursue medicine. Fraught family dynamics and maternal nagging to master domestic chores for her future husband further suffocate Nitasha and narrow her options. Growing apart from her best friend and her crush, who both present white, translates into heightened insecurity about her looks. Nitasha copes by using alcohol and self-harming (her cutting is explicitly shown). At a high school party, her drinking gets out of hand, and a slut-shaming video of her spreads on social media. Nitasha’s delicate mental health shatters, and she attempts suicide (contrary to widely recommended practices, her method is detailed in the illustrations). When her family and broader support network rally around her, Nitasha feels supported and initiates a mental health support group within her religious community. This keenly observed graphic novel touches on rarely discussed themes of alcoholism, mental health, self-harm, and emotional avoidance in South Asian communities. Though some plot points lean into melodrama, the portrayal of overbearing immigrant parents and the pressures of high school feel true to life. The illustrations make interesting use of color, with sepia-tinted panels for scenes from the past and pinks, blues, and purples enhancing more dramatic situations.

A candid if potentially triggering exploration of mental health challenges in South Asian families.