Seen As Scene

One girl's anger at social media challenges to self-harm.

Published 1st Sep 2015

A 21 year old girl who's self harmed for years, says she feels angry when she sees social media challenges encouraging youngsters to hurt themselves.

Worrying trends have emerged with superfans going to new extremes. The hashtag #cut4zayn was trending on Twitter just minutes after the 22-year-old’s departure was announced.

A couple of years ago we saw something similar, when Justin Bieber fans urged each other to cut themselves, after he was pictured smoking a suspicious looking cigarette

21 Year old Sarah says:

"When I see photos on social media of people self harming - it sickens me,

"There's people out there like me, who do have these serious problems, but then then I see these social media crazes and people doing it because they want the attention of a band member or an artist - people like us get pushed back and they get attention - it's not right."

Sarah has fought for years to keep her mental illness under control, but says the impact it has on her day to day life is huge:

"All my arms are now scarred, all my legs are scarred, I've got scars on my stomach - everywhere I go, I've got to wear long sleeves, and be covered, otherwise people do look at me and stare,

When I've had jobs, people are just staring and judging me, it is ruining my life."

So we have launched a campaign to encourage you to talk about self-harm and reduce the number of young people who are hurting themselves.

#HarmLESS has already got the backing of celebrities and the public.

You can listen to an extended interview with Sarah here: