RIP: Bullied Teen Amanda Todd

For this week’s Perfect Beauty episode, I wanted to talk about overcoming hardships in life and not judging others. Her story, unfortunately tragic, will remind us how precious life is. Please no arguing about her story and may she rest in peace:

Original Description:
“I’m struggling to stay in this world, because everything just touches me so deeply. I’m not doing this for attention. I’m doing this to be an inspiration and to show that I can be strong. I did things to myself to make pain go away, because I’d rather hurt myself then someone else. Haters are haters but please don’t hate, although im sure I’ll get them. I hope I can show you guys that everyone has a story, and everyones future will be bright one day, you just gotta pull through. I’m still here aren’t I ?”

NEWS CLIP:

Story: A teenager posted a heartbreaking video on YouTube chronicling years of bullying in school and online, cutting and humiliation up until she died this week.

Amanda Todd, 15, posted the video called “My story: Struggling, bullying, suicide, self harm” on Sept. 7 and was found dead in her home town of Port Coquitlam, British Columbia, just over a month later.

“Hello, I’ve decided to tell you about my never ending story,” the black and white video begins. Todd can only be seen from her nose down for most of the video, occasionally moving around so that her face is visible. She silently tells her story through a series of white cards with black marker writing on them.

She describes using webcam chats to meet and talk to new people online as a seventh grade student. She said that people told her she was “stunning, beautiful, perfect” and a man pressured her to flash her chest. One year later, she did.

Todd received a Facebook message from a man she did not know saying that if she did not “put on a show” for him, he would send the photo of her chest to everyone. Over Christmas break, Todd said police came to her house at 4 a.m. to tell her that the photo had been sent to everyone.

“I then got really sick and got anxiety, major depression and panic disorders,” she wrote. “I then moved and got into drugs and alcohol.”

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A year after moving, Todd said things were going better until the man on Facebook came back and used the photo of her chest as his profile picture. Todd said she “cried every night, lost all my friends and respect people had for me again.”

“I can never get that photo back,” she wrote. “It’s out there forever.”

She described being called names, eating lunch alone and resorting to cutting herself. She also told the story of an incident where she made a “huge mistake” and “hooked up” with a boy at her school who had a girlfriend, but who she believed really liked her.

A week later, she said she received a text message telling her to get out of school and then a group of students, led by the boy’s girlfriend, surrounded her at school and said, “Look around, nobody likes you.”

“A guy then yelled, ‘Just punch her already,’ so [the girlfriend] did,” Todd wrote. “She threw me to the ground and punched me several times. Kids filmed it. I was all alone and left on the ground.”

Todd said she “wanted to die so bad” when her dad found her in a ditch. She drank bleach when she went home and had to be rushed to the hospital to have her stomach pumped, she said.

“After I got home, all I saw was on Facebook–‘She deserved it. Did you wash the mud out of your hair? I hope she’s dead,'” she wrote.

Todd moved to another school in another city, but said the torture followed her through Facebook. Students posted photos of ditches and suggested she try another bleach.

“Every day, I think, why am I still here?” she asked towards the end of the video. “I’m stuck. What’s left of me now? Nothing stops. I have nobody. I need someone. My name is Amanda Todd.”

Authorities were called to a residence in Port Coquitlam, British Columbia, just before 6 p.m. on Oct. 10 to investigate the sudden death of the tormented teenager.

While authorities have not officially called the death a suicide, Cpl. Jamie Chung of the Coquitlam Royal Canadian Mounted Police said in a statement, “At this time it has been determined that the teen’s death was not suspicious in nature and that foul play was not a factor.”

The coroner is investigating the death, police said.

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