Table 3.

Themes and Exemplar Quotes

Theme	Subtheme	Exemplar quotes
Decision-making processes: it depends	It depends: If you don't ask, I don't tell	I don't really [decide]. Whenever someone asks I tell them … anyone can know if they just ask. (17-year-old male, thyroid cancer) It's not something I go around telling everybody on a day-to-day basis. To me it's in the past. It's something I've moved on from. If it somehow comes up, through other things, then I'll explain it. (19-year-old male, leukemia)
	It depends: If we have a shared experience	If it's a serious situation, I will tell people. At my job, a customer's daughter was in the hospital, so I felt I had to tell her. I like knowing I could be there for somebody in their time of need. (24-year-old female, osteosarcoma)
	It depends: On our relationship potential	If someone is going to be close to me, or people that do care or are going to care about me, they should know things like that. (17-year-old male, melanoma) If I'm going to be close with this person or I'm going to spend a lot of time with them, I think they should know. (16-year-old female, osteogenic sarcoma)
Perceptions of others' responses	Perceived apprehension	I don't want a sympathy party. (24-year-old female, osteosarcoma survivor) I don't want to say I'm a cancer survivor; it'll depress everyone. (19-year-old male, leukemia)
	Positive responses	My friends hear me talk about it. I could talk about it with them. But I talk about it with them for a reason, because they don't look at me like, “Oh, you poor thing.” (24-year-old female, osteosarcoma) It brings me joy and positive feelings when I share my experience. It's comforting to repeat my story. (18-year-old male, Hodgkin lymphoma)
Method of disclosure	Verbal	It's such a big part of my life, and had such an impact on me that I do like talking about it. I'm very flattered when people ask me about it or want to talk to me about it. (19-year-old female, pancreatic cancer)
	Written	It felt really good to let everything out [after reading my English essay] … I was really surprised when people reacted in a positive and supportive way and didn't act weird. (18-year-old female, Hodgkin lymphoma) In my [psychology] essay the goal is to explain how life is not life after cancer; it's more like life with cancer. Just because the disease isn't there you're still living the cancer lifestyle to some extent. (21-year-old male, Ewing sarcoma) I wanted to get the message out to people, but I don't want sympathy. So I wrote it down. It felt really good to just let everything out. (18-year-old female, non-Hodgkin lymphoma)
	Behavioral	I've been more willing to volunteer and get other people involved. It's time to do it back for everyone else. I got to keep going. I met new people that way and I don't really talk to people about what happened but at those points I really wanted people to understand. (17-year-old male, Hodgkin lymphoma)