The Story Of Bullied Teen, Amanda Todd, Who Commited Suicide Touching Many Worldwide

The story of Amanda Todd can make even the toughest man cry. I have talked about viral videos on YouTube before, and all of them up to this point have been humorous or at least entertaining in one way or another. Not the case with the video of a 15-year-old Canadian girl who made a video in which she used a series of flash cards to tell of her experience of being bullied, and then committed suicide a month later.

I am usually a little behind when it comes to finding the next hot thing on the internet, as I was in this case. But after seeing almost every friend I have on Facebook posting about a girl named Amanda Todd, I looked into it. What I saw pulled on my heart strings, and I obviously was not alone. Over 7 million people have viewed Amanda’s video, and 600,000 have liked her support page on Facebook. We can all relate to being on one side or the other of bullying at one point in our lives, and as we get older I think we can all look back and regret doing it if we were the bully, or still have hard feelings if we got bullied. It happens, but as Amanda’s story shows, it is not worth it.

Amanda story goes like this…

The video called “My story: Struggling, bullying, suicide, self harm”  was posted on September 7th. 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 said she was lured by a stranger to expose her breasts on a webcam and the picture ended up on a Facebook page made by the stranger, to which her friends were added.

She wrote of being plunged into anxiety, depression, drugs and alcohol. She said she changed schools but an encounter with another girl’s boyfriend started the bullying again, which this time escalated into a physical attack in which she said she was beaten.

When she got home, she wrote, she drank bleach. “It killed me inside and I thought I actually was going to die.”

She was rushed to a hospital to flush out the bleach. More anxiety, cutting and overdosing followed, her struggles with anxiety and cutting herself got worse, and despite counseling and antidepressants, she was rushed to hospital again after an overdose.

The last cards said simply: “I have nobody. I need someone. My name is Amanda Todd.”

Beneath the video, Todd posted a note saying she produced it not for attention, but “to be an inspiration and to show that I can be strong.” “Everyone’s future will be bright one day, you just gotta pull through. I’m still here, aren’t I?”

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.

A tragic time has been made even more difficult as vitriol and abuse continues to circulate on the Internet, smearing Amanda’s name and seeking to continue the hurt for those she left behind.

I don’t care who you are, what you are, or what you think, bullying has got to stop. Human emotions make us fragile, and we cannot continue to lose sons, daughters, and other loved ones due to being hurt so badly emotionally. If you know of a bully, stop them immediately, and if you know of someone who is being bullied, help them before it is too late.

Rest in peace Amanda