AN ELEVEN-YEAR-OLD GIRL
is bullied and teased at school without a single friend. All the adults say, “toughen up. Sticks and stones may break your bones, but words do not hurt at all”. She spends most of her nights crying, fearing that no one her age will ever like her. When her mom gives her her first email address she warns, “don’t talk to strangers online” but these strangers the girl meets are really just like her. They don’t mind if she doesn’t wear the right clothes or like the right boys. Now every night she ends up in tears, but for a different reason than before. She’s finally found friends.
A THIRTEEN-YEAR-OLD GIRL
is ready to take her own life. Middle school is getting harder and harder as the little girls she once knew get meaner and meaner. As she starts swallowing the pills and pulls out the knife she realizes that it’s just a cry for help. It’s 2 am and the only ones awake are thousands of miles away. But that’s all she needs. They are the ones who stay up all night talking to her, comforting her and standing as her beacon of hope. She is no longer alone, this is no longer just her struggle. It is shared by those connected to her by a screen.
A FIFTEEN-YEAR-OLD GIRL
enters her freshman year alone. For awhile she does not talk to anyone at her new school. She spends the first lunches sitting in the bathroom stall laughing and talking to her friends far away. They say to talk to the girls in her PE class and say hello to the boy next to her in English. Soon she makes “real” friends but always has time for the ones through the screen.
A SIXTEEN-YEAR-OLD GIRL
gets her heart broken by a girl who doesn’t care. Her online friends stay up all night for her making playlists and sending funny pictures. They refuse to sleep until she is able to stand again.
AN EIGHTEEN-YEAR-OLD GIRL
walks across the stage to get her diploma. Thousands of miles away, her friends watch. The scared and bullied eleven-year-old girl enters adulthood. All of her hurt has healed thanks to bandages provided by her friends. The girl is proud of herself, but not as proud as the people she only knows through the internet.
A TWENTY-SIX-YEAR-OLD GIRL
is getting married. She walks down the aisle to Bon Iver on the happiest day of her life. Sitting in the front row are her internet friends, the one’s she’s had for fifteen years. She’s the happiest she’s ever been and she’s stronger than she’s ever thought she could be. All this time she thought she was alone, but she was never alone, the people who kept her company were never there in the flesh but they were there for her. Her Friday nights were filled with group skype calls instead of parties, her birthday presents were YouTube videos instead of t-shirts, and her idea of “going out” meant watching the same movie on Netflix.
Together, they’ve made it.
