http://www.calgaryherald.com/news/Amanda+Todd+speaks+about+daughter+death/7386696/story.html
Childhood sucks.
The teen years are different for everybody and the people who lack empathy for this girl are probably either a) fairly well adjusted and had no problems as a kid or b) have a lot of problems and want to spread their hate in order to make themselves feel better.
Speaking as someone who, when I was very very young, was bullied day in and day out because I was different, I can say that the emotional distress stays with a person the rest of their lives until they are an adult and deal with those problems thoroughly. If you are someone like this then you may have learned that the only way out of it is to begin a new life after forgiving others and yourself. The pain that leads to suicide is not from the outside world, but from within due to the pressure a person puts on themselves by dwelling on the painful memories and repeating negative words and images to themselves. Until they learn how to stop that, they will be in hell their whole lives. I was fortunate enough to live through it and get over it, but most people don't and it really is tragic, considering this girl was very beautiful and could have probably been a model at the very least (I have no idea what else she had going for her, but that is a start). But instead, she let the pressures of being a teenager get to her. She never figured out that most of those bullies are going to grow up to be somewhere between average and shitty on the spectrum of human greatness.
Amanda clearly had image problems, as many pretty girls do: between movies, television, magazines, and other societal impacts, a teenage girl is forced to be reminded of "what a female is supposed to look like", and with social media these days, an ignorant teenage girl is going to post pics of herself and try to be "cool" and beautiful as much as possible in the eyes of anyone who will pay attention. So yea, she did some stupid things to get attention. The real question you have to ask yourself, however, is what makes her situation different than other girls her age? Well, she did say that she moved in with her mom, implying that her parents are divorced. That's a broken family already. But what concerns me more is this question that I think people tend to gloss over in this situation:
WHERE WERE HER PARENTS WHEN SHE WAS GETTING NAKED ON WEBCAMS AND HAVING SEX WITH GUYS SHE JUST MET AT HER NEW SCHOOL?
People try to say, "You can't blame the parents, kids are gonna do what they're gonna do." But that is bullshit. Parents have a role to play and part of that role is teaching life lessons and morals to your kids. There's a reason why there are so many laws governing how to raise a child, because being a parent is a lifelong commitment that so many people completely blow off. This girl clearly never had any guidance on how to conduct herself in society, and if she was breaking the rules that she *was* taught, then her parents were not paying enough attention to her to at least stop her and correct her. From my personal standpoint, my parents were very similar and it caused a lot of problems for me. I see friends of mine whose parents were very active in their lives and they turned out much more well-adjusted. It's not a mystery why.
The other problem is the parenting and guidance of the bullies. What kind of morals are they learning where it has become a good idea to band together like that and treat one person with such disrespect? Not liking someone and spreading rumors about them is one thing, but it sounds like there was clearly a mob after her.
So yea, you can go around blaming stupid kids here, but the real tragedy is the parenting in America. People don't plan having kids, they just wing it and then are surprised that this shit happens.
