Brazil's Teens Discover a Deadly New Game

When my 12-year-old daughter got home from school the other day, she bee-lined to the computer with the sense of purpose she normally reserves for Katy Perry. "You gotta see this," she ordered, commandeering the mouse. I recognized the face staring back at me as that of the Brazilian YouTuber whose antic videos are the toast of seventh grade and the bane of homework. Only now, the young clown had a grave message, diminished only slightly by his shock of pink hair: depression.

OK, no mystery there. From Netflix's "Thirteen Reasons Why" to the World Health Organization's 2017 campaign theme, funk is in vogue, and in societies as diverse as India to Iran. That the topic is trending among the whatever generation -- tweens and teens -- seems only fitting. But in Brazil? After all, come crisis or carnival, this sunny land consistently places high in world happiness rankings. Even amid the worst recession on record, Brazilians bagged 22nd place out of 150 countries in the latest Gallup Happiness poll and rated their lives on a par with those of their peers in the world's high-income nations, while São Paulo is home to some of the most optimistic urban youth in the world.