Olivia

I was watching a story on tv on the weekend about Olivia Penpraze and it just broke my heart.

“I suck at introductions, and I don’t know where to start. My name is Liv, and I guess I look like your normal happy teenager...”This is how Olivia’s video blog post started and as the video went on you saw cards with Olivia’s thoughts about bullying and suicide. It was a very honest video and in today’s world of internet etc I guess it was her way of communicating with the outside world.

  

Olivia’s father was interviewed and he estimated around 15,000 people had watched that video between the time it was posted in January 2012 and early May 3 at the time of her death. What is unbelievable is that no one contacted Olivia’s parents to tell them about the video.  Was it a case of it was too hard for anyone to speak up or intervene?

At the age of 19 I can understand how hard it would have been for Olivia to communicate and really articulate how she felt on the inside. Only now in my late 20’s can I begin to try and explain how my own head works being depressed. How are teenagers today meant to explain how they feel when they are dealing with social media along with the other more traditional forms of bullying?