we're not real anyways explores mental health struggles, highs, lows, LGBTQ+ love, and heartbreak. These poems contain the struggles of dealing with many mental illnesses including depression, anxiety, OCD, BPD, PTSD, and anorexia nervosa. The collection was written during the author's time at a residential eating disorder recovery facility, while participating in the step-down programs.

she tried to disappear, so he could finally be happy.

she wanted to fade away until a girl asked her to stay.

maybe she won't always hate herself.

"...an emotionally searing, impressively crafted sequence that intertwines its statement of truth with an ongoing search for hope. It is the work of a talented young poet whose voice is haunting, inspiring and indelible."

-Barbara Burch, PhD, Professor of English, Georgetown College

"Right from the title, Maddie Mitchell plays with the reader's doubts of reality and invites us into her mindset and into her personal experiences, that are easily translated to the universal...The unfiltered abandon that Mitchell is able to confess in each poem for us is admirable."

-Rebecca Smolen, author of Excoriation, Gateless Method facilitator