Who can blame Jesy Nelson’s mum Jan for wishing her girl had never entered X Factor or become a part of girlband Little Mix?
She wants the old Jesy back. The confident, fun-loving girl who didn’t have a care in the world. The Jesy who wasn’t tortured by cyber-bullying that eventually led to a suicide attempt.
Fighting back tears, Jan said: “If I could have my Jesy back from before and not have any of it... I’ve lost Jes to social media.”
BBC Three’s Jesy Nelson: Odd One Out on Thursday made a massive impact.
The 28-year-old bravely told how winning The X Factor in 2011, while achieving her dream, also kick started the worst time of her life.
“The whole world had an opinion on me,” she said, still hugely affected by the barrage of abuse she received from online trolls.
Appalling examples flashed up on the screen: “fat ugly singing whale”, “repulsive” and most disturbing, “Go kill yourself”.
Beautiful Jesy was barely 20 when the abuse started.
She became a nervous wreck who would cry herself to sleep and not go to work.
She starved herself to lose weight, but one particularly vile tweet from that paragon of hate, Katie Hopkins, said she was chubby.
Let’s hope for Katie’s sake that her three children are never bullied on social media by people like her.
One day, severely depressed, Jesy took as many pills as she could. When her boyfriend found her she said: “I want to die”.
Little Mix’s Jade Thirlwall said: “We had to watch this amazing funny girl just become a bit like a broken doll.”
Thank God someone found her and called an ambulance. Jesy’s visit to the parents of Sian Waterhouse, a 16-year-old who committed suicide after being bullied online, was heartbreaking.
Overwhelmed Jesy stood crying in Sian’s bedroom, left untouched since she died.
As a mum, the thought that one day my children will have access to social media is terrifying. A shocking seven in ten young people have experienced cyber-bullying, with 26 per cent of them feeling suicidal.
Viewers, including actress Emily Atack, have called for Jesy’s documentary to be shown in schools - a powerful way to show kids the devastating impact one comment can make.
Jesy admits her trauma “runs deep” - when her boyfriend, Love Island’s Chris Hughes, compliments her, she laughs. She doesn’t believe him.
How incredible that she has stepped forward to do all she can to empower others, hopefully paving the way for debate and change.
In the doc, one girl at a support group suggested people post positive comments to counteract the nasty ones.
It’s a small chip away at a huge problem, but perhaps food for thought.
When it comes to bullies, let’s kill them with kindness.
