Don’t Worry about Me

Vilma has just turned 13. While her body and identity are changing and—just like her friends—her life revolves around the people she dates, parties and music, her mother is diagnosed with incurable cancer. The doctors give her 6 to 48 months to live. Together and separately, daughter and mother try to live as normally as possible, but at the same time they’re both grappling with the prospect of losing and being lost.

Don't Worry about Me is an autobiographical coming-of-age novel about illness, love, laughter, loneliness, and grief. A touching and strangely life-affirming story about being a teenager while one’s mother is actively dying yet still alive.

About the author 

Vilma Sandnes Johansson, b. 2000, is a Danish debut author who used her own life as a starting point to write about growing up close to death. She graduated from Christianhavn’s Gymnasium in 2019, writes for Elle, and volunteers for the National Grief Center.

Text translated by Sharon Rhodes