North Las Vegas youth stars in comic book about epilepsy

North Las Vegas resident Megan Mejia is the star of a recently released comic book. In the book, she doesn’t fight crime, wear a robot suit, fly, turn into an angry, muscled monster or even solve crimes with a spunky, talking dog. She simply shares her story of living with epilepsy and encourages others to tell their stories — and that makes her a special kind of superhero.

The 16-year-old is featured in the third issue of Medikidz comics epilepsy series. While some other issues of the Medikidz books feature action sequences such as shrinking and exploring inside a human body, her book is a quieter, contemplative one. In the story, one of the heroic, Spandex-clad Medikidz simply shows up at her home to hear her story and how epilepsy has affected her.

“I was given the first book in the series by the Nevada Epilepsy Foundation,” Mejia said. “They were looking for people to tell their story. You were supposed to send in a two-minute video about why you want to get involved.”

The teen had already been sharing her story through social media, and she suspects that may have had something to do with her being chosen.

“I’ve enjoyed telling my story, and it’s really helped me in an emotional sense,” Mejia said. “My story is geared towards older kids.”

She was pleased with not only her likeness but that of her cat. The artists worked from photos and video.

Medikidz began in 2009 when U.K doctor Kate Hersov became frustrated with the lack of engaging education for her young patients in pediatrics. There are more than 60 titles in the series explaining things ranging from allergies to cancer. There are comics that explain to children what they can expect when they are diagnosed with a disease and others that explain what to expect when a parent or loved one contracts a particular disease. The company has distributed more than 3.5 million books.

Sindy Nathan, director of sales at Medikidz, said the company partners with local charities to cover the cost of production and distribution. In some cases, the books are given directly to the children; in other cases, the books are displayed in a doctor’s or hospital’s waiting room as a more useful alternative to fashion, entertainment or news magazines.

“Everything we do is written by doctors and looked over by peers to make sure the content is correct,” Nathan said. “We want to hook the kids with entertainment and sometimes jokes, but we need to make sure the information the kids are getting is correct. It’s a very rigorous process.”

For more information about Medikidz, visit medikidz.com. The site includes information about how to acquire one of the books.

To reach East Valley View reporter F. Andrew Taylor, email ataylor@viewnews.com or call 702-380-4532.