I had the absolute pleasure of reading “Dear Anna,” by Mia Mandala last month. Mandala is a new Her Campus contributor, but she’s been a writer long before that. “Dear Anna,” was formulated and written over the course of four years, from eighth grade into her junior year of high school, and her book was officially published on May 19, 2025.
“Dear Anna,” is one of the most impactful books I’ve read this year. I went into it knowing and understanding that it was about a 15-year-old girl named Missy who was trudging through grief, but I couldn’t grasp just how it was going to affect me yet.
I will say one thing for certain: Mia Mandala knows how to write damn great characters. Every character is in high school, ranging from 15 to 17 or18 years old, and no one could have written them as well as Mandala did.
While the characters and the plot aren’t based on or drawn from Mandala’s real life, the emotions are very real. Each character came from such an intense amount of emotion from Mandala, and as a reader, you can fully feel it too. I connected to each character in a way I never expected to.
It’s sometimes difficult for me to feel something while reading, but Mandala had no issue accessing such raw shock, heartbreak, and empathy from me. I urge every single one of you to read “Dear Anna,” — I promise it is so worth it.
“Dear Anna,” is one of the most tender, poignant, and moving books I’ve ever had the privilege of reading. There were multiple times throughout the reading experience that I just went “Oh,” and as much as it made me feel, I couldn’t stop reading. I felt connected to these characters in ways that I never imagined I could. None of them are perfect, but that’s what makes them real.
*SPOILERS* — don’t read this section if you don’t want any spoilers (I promise I won’t be offended!).
First, let’s talk about Missy’s character. Missy is the main character in “Dear Anna,” who is dealing with tremendous grief after her best friend, Anna, passed away four months prior to when the book first begins in September 2017.
“Dear Anna,” explores grief and depression through Missy’s actions of anger, angst, and overall impulsive decisions that she knows is bad for her, but she can’t quite seem to stop. She knows that hanging out with the seniors at her high school who smoke, drink, and skip class is bad for her, and it soon turns her into a girl that she doesn’t recognize. But she couldn’t bring herself to care. The person she loved the most in the world was gone, and there was nothing she could do about it. She begins self-harming as a release for the overwhelming sadness, guilt, and anger she feels and it brings her relief that nothing else could.
Missy begins a “relationship” with this guy named Logan, and he is the epitome of a bad guy. He’s dismissive, only uses her for sexual purposes, is coercive, and is overall incredibly insensitive.
Every time his character appeared on the page, I was immediately unsettled. Missy tells herself that she loves him and can tolerate him even when her body is screaming at her to stop. When he touches her and kisses her, her mind goes blank, and she tries to convince herself that she is enjoying it. But she’s not. You know why? Logan was never going to be Anna.
There were many times while reading “Dear Anna,” that I questioned Missy’s judgement, but that’s also what makes it realistic. I have also been a 15-year-old girl, and I can be the first to admit that 15-year-old girls aren’t always the most rational and make the smartest decisions.
Especially when faced with the magnitude of grief and depression that Missy experienced after Anna died, as a reader, you can understand Missy and why she acted in the ways that she did. She just wanted to not hurt or feel the tremendous hole that Anna left behind in her heart and she wanted to not feel anything by any means possible.
One of the moments of “Dear Anna,” that broke my heart was a scene where Missy and Anna sneak out to the beach when they’re having a sleepover. They go to the beach, watch the waves, and Anna initiates a game of truth or dare. They go a few rounds, and then Anna dares Missy to kiss her.
For Missy, it was unlike anything she had ever experienced. She described it as “a kiss that felt like fireworks” and that it was like “an invisible spark had been ignited between [them].” The only thing that mattered in that moment was Missy and Anna and their absolute love, adoration, and care for one another.
After that, Anna freaked out and immediately left, leaving Missy wondering what had just happened. They went to school the next day, Anna ignored Missy, Missy wondered what happened, and they left school that day not saying a word to each other. But, that’s not the most heartbreaking part.
The way and reason that Anna died was very ambiguous up until near the end of Part One. It was then revealed that Anna had died while biking to Missy’s house to give her a letter telling her she loved her.
She loved her so much, and that is what scared her. She felt the same sparks from before the night that Missy did, and those feelings scared her. Anna never got to tell Missy that she loved her, and Missy never got the same opportunity — Missy loved every part of Anna, and she never got to tell her.
Missy worked up the courage to read Anna’s letter after going to Emma’s house following an instance in which Logan had kept pressuring her into sex with him. She said no repeatedly, he slapped her, and she went to Emma’s house.
Missy and Emma always had a tumultuous relationship, but things really fractured after Anna died. But, in one of her darkest moments, Missy went to Emma’s house. Emma cleaned her up and opened Missy’s eyes up to the fact that Anna was dead and never coming back. Missy finally admitting and realizing that Anna was never coming back lifted a hazy veil for her. Before admitting it out loud, Missy was operating under the notion that Anna would come back. Anna was never coming back.
She visited Anna’s grave and told her that she loved her and that she would see her soon. It was at that moment I knew what would happen next. She said that “the day [Anna] died, a part of [her] died with [Anna].” Missy simply could not live without Anna. She was every part of her, and she couldn’t continue without her. And she didn’t. Missy overdosed on pills shortly after and joined Anna like she promised she would.
I sat with the end of Part One for a while.
In Part Two, Mandala explores Emma and Harper’s characters in their journeys of grief following Missy’s death. Mandala expertly explores Emma’s character because, from Missy’s point of view, Emma was rude, isolating, and didn’t seem like she cared about Missy after Anna died, but that wasn’t the case. Emma was also just a 15-year-old girl who didn’t know how to process her grief.
Emma, Missy, and Anna were the trio from middle school into high school. They did everything together, and some of their best memories were with each other. But, it was always apparent that Missy and Anna felt love for each other that surpassed being simply platonic.
Harper became one of Missy’s closest friends after Anna died. Harper was one of the seniors that Missy began hanging out with, and she felt the most akin with her. Harper also dealt with suicidal thoughts and depression, and she identified the path of self-destruction Missy was headed down. Missy never told Harper why she was so sad or what had happened, but Harper could always sense that she never knew the full story.
The easiest emotion for both Emma and Harper to access was anger. That anger came out at their parents, they snapped at the people they loved the most, and they overall started getting further and further away from the people they wanted to be.
The second half explores how death imprints on those around you, but it explores how different people can navigate those deep-seated uncomfortable emotions that grief brings. You can’t escape it completely, but you learn how to sit with it for a while.
A very common feeling of grief is feeling guilty of living your life and finding enjoyment. You feel guilty for feeling happy, having fun, feeling excited — overall, feeling anything good, really.
Mandala explores that notion very well through Emma’s character and her side romance story. After Missy and Anna’s deaths, Emma begins sitting by herself at school and overall keeping to herself. Soon, a new kid, Blake, starts talking to her, and she begins to feel like herself again. They go out for pizza, hang out all the time, and soon start developing very real feelings.
Blake made Emma feel safe and cared for, and she really liked him. But she felt an insurmountable amount of grief and guilt that she could kiss Blake, begin loving someone, feel all the excitement, and everything good that came with that, knowing that she can experience all these new things, but Missy and Anna couldn’t.
Faced with that guilt, Emma began pulling away from Blake. She began not responding to him or being short with her responses and overall ignoring him. It was easier for her to do that than to talk to him about her impossible grief.
The end of “Dear Anna,” is placed in New Jersey on Christmas Day, where Emma and Harper officially meet as Harper visits Missy’s grave and Emma brings flowers for her and Anna. It was the full circle moment that I had been waiting for, and it was beautiful that Emma and Harper couldn find comfort in each other in such a unique way.
Overall, I loved “Dear Anna,” immensely, and I still haven’t scratched the surface of the world Mandala expertly created. Please give it a read.
Mia Mandala – The Author
Here at CU Boulder, Mia Mandala is a freshman double-majoring in Theater and English to tackle both of her loves. She’s always been drawn to telling and sharing stories, so her education taps into just that. I asked her if there are any projects that she is currently working on, and she told me she is currently working on writing two plays: one centered on an eating disorder support group and the other a rom-com centered around two couples: an old married couple and a younger couple that just got engaged — both caught in a cabin in a snowstorm together.
Growing up, Mandala always wanted to be a writer. She was constantly surrounded by books and stories that captivated her and were introduced to her by her mom. She admired writers for their ability to share stories that you may not experience in everyday life. Throughout middle school and into high school, Mandala would always tell her friends that a bucket-list goal was writing a book. And she did just that.
Writing “Dear Anna,” was a very special process for Mandala. She was always writing. Whether it was just an idea for a character, one line for a story, or a skeleton of a plot, Mandala had it.
She began by writing about Missy, the main character, because at her point in her life, she needed an outlet. Missy was that outlet. “Dear Anna,” started because Mandala knew she wanted to write about a girl her age battling with depression, but didn’t feel as though she had a reason to. The story only evolved from there.
Originally, Mandala only wrote “Dear Anna,” up until the end of Part One (if you read the book you’ll know what I’m referencing) devoid of Anna’s character completely. It wasn’t until Mandala finished writing Part One of “Dear Anna,” that she began thinking about a sequel to it, but then she had the idea of combining the story for Part One and introducing a Part Two. In writing the sequel, that’s when Mandala had the idea of including Anna’s character into “Dear Anna,” and I can’t imagine it any other way.
Mandala stated not only to me, but through the entire premise of “Dear Anna,” that the mental health of teenagers is very important to bring attention to and it’s often the main focus on Mandala’s writing.
She writes about subjects that not a lot of people pay attention to. Mandala hopes that by not shying away from the tough subjects surrounding mental health that she lets her readers know that they are not alone.
She ultimately wants her readers to feel seen and write stories that help people. She wants to continue writing complex characters and plots regarding mental health that a lot of people shy away from because it’s important to her that no one feels alone when reading her stories.
“Dear Anna,” is self-published through KDP (Kindle Direct Publishing) on Amazon, but she hopes to go down a more traditional publishing path in the future so that her audience can be larger and she can reach more people with her stories.
For Mandala it has never been about the money — she merely wants her story to mean something to someone. And it meant everything to me.
Mia Mandala is an exciting new writer constantly working on new projects, ideas, and stories she wants to share with the world. I, for one, can’t wait to see what is in store for her.
In the meantime, go check out her Instagram and TikTok under: miasworld.writing