Aija Mayrock did not have a good freshman year of high school.
Mayrock turned to writing — an outlet that would eventually help her overcome the negativity in her past. She packaged personal stories, inspirational messages and survival tips into her first book,The Survival Guide to Bullying.
The book’s success earned her a large online following and opened her eyes to the positive aspects of social media. But after enduring the torment from her peers, Mayrock admits that she was “terrified of using social media to promote my book or to just get my story out there because — at that point in my life — I had only experienced the negative side of social media and all of the cyber bullying that can come with it.”
Mayrock added that future leaders, many of whom are social media influencers like herself, first emerged online, then gained a following — and are now able to take their message offline and into the world. Examples include people who have started powerful movements like #MeToo and #BlackLivesMatter, both of which gained momentum when a few brave people started to speak up on social media.
Another young person who participated in the Facebook panel was teen journalist and mental health advocate Malik Mercier, who gained a following after hosting Instagram’sMarch For Our Livescoverage. Mercier also acknowledged the positives of social media, saying it was an online post that first gave him the courage to seek treatment for his mental health issues. The 19-year-old, who openly speaks about his Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, made a strong a case for the mental health awareness generated online.
“Young people just want to be heard,” he told PEOPLE. “There are so many pieces of me that I’m still figuring out.”
Mercier says his Instagram has become a safe place for his peers to do the same. One of hisrecent captions reads, “it’s May aka #mentalhealthawarenessmonth 🧠😇 here in the US. my wish for you is to be mentally okay with not just what you used to look like, or what you hope you will look like, but this month…if just for once, I want you to be happy + okay with where you are and what you look like this very second❤️. right now, my friend.”
Still, he told PEOPLE that once people choose to talk about their mental health journey on social media, they have to be prepared for all different types of reactions.
“You can take your time (to post),” Mercier told PEOPLE. “You want to take time to process it for yourself.”
source: people.com
