Must Reads: Why did the boy on the bridge do it?

Compelling, ambitious stories you can’t afford to miss.

It’s not in her title, but enterprise reporter Jessica Contrera is kind of a teen whisperer.  Contrera developed that skill in 2016, when she wrote a series about how technology is changing childhood.  Her stories touched on childhood mental health, but Contrera wasn’t able to explore it in depth.  “We tend to write about mental health and kids when a child actually dies,” Contrera says. “But the far more common thing is they attempt suicide, but don't die.” Contrera points to a study that found the percentage of children ages 5 to 17 who were hospitalized for suicidal thoughts or actions more than doubled from 2008 to 2015.  She worries that people are tired of hearing about mental illness. Words like “stigma” and “mindfulness” can feel meaningless, Contrera says, when they’re constantly talked about in general terms. She was looking for a way to illustrate the trends and their consequences when she stumbled on a small news brief that turned into this week’s top story: “The boy on the bridge.” “You can tell these stories through individual kids and then they become a lot more powerful,” Contrera says. — T.J. Ortenzi, General Assignment Editor Thanks for reading Must Reads. Please send me an email if you have any questions or feedback about the stories in this week's newsletter. The boy on the bridge A 12-year-old tried to kill himself, police say. Instead, he killed someone else. By Jessica Contrera  •   Read more » Michael Flynn’s transformation from storied officer to heated partisan Friends and colleagues of the three-star general say his public persona shifted dramatically after he left the military. But they remain at odds over why. By Marc Fisher  •   Read more » The designer who radically suggested that women should wear what’s comfortable How Claire McCardell made the fashion world confront who gets the right to dress women. By Elizabeth Evitts Dickinson  •   Read more » A man-made war paid for by women and children In Yemen’s horrific civil conflict, they are the ones most likely to be displaced, deprived and abused. Listen to their accounts. By Neha Wadekar  •   Read more » Anyone can create a new emoji. Here’s an animated guide to doing it right. Yes, even you. By Kolin Pope  •   Read more » The killers they saw coming: How domestic violence leads to murder The Washington Post found that nearly half of the women who were murdered during the past decade were killed by an intimate partner. By Katie Zezima, Deanna Paul, Steven Rich, Julie Tate and Jennifer Jenkins  •   Read more » Perspective Trump’s claim that he didn’t violate campaign finance law is weak — and dangerous The case against the president would be far stronger than the case against John Edwards was. George T. Conway III, Trevor Potter and Neal Katyal  •  Read more » FYI: George T. Conway III is the husband of counselor to the president Kellyanne Conway.  A star flutist is paid $64,451 less than her male counterpart. So she’s suing. Elizabeth Rowe’s case against the Boston Symphony Orchestra could change how orchestras pay men and women. By Geoff Edgers  •   Read more » Meet Melania Trump’s enforcer. It’s not her husband. Stephanie Grisham started as a part-time press wrangler and became a White House power broker. Sarah Ellison  •   Read more » Eight simple tricks to keep hackers from ruining Christmas shopping Here’s how to be a defensive online shopper — even on Amazon — in a world where data breaches are the new norm. Geoffrey Fowler  •   Read more »