Amanda Todd: Nov. 27, 1996 - Oct. 10, 2012

Fifteen-year-old Amanda Todd of British Columbia, Canada, created a 9-minute YouTube video titled “My Story: Struggling, bullying, suicide, self-harm,” a little over a month before her suicide. During the video, Amanda used flash cards to tell her experience of being bullied.

When Amanda was in grade 7, she moved in with her father where she used video chat to make new friends on the Internet. She received a lot of compliments regarding her physical looks. One person persuaded Amanda to bare her breasts on camera. Later on, the person blackmailed her with threats to expose her topless photo unless she gave a “show.”

Two years after moving in with her father, Amanda moved out of her father’s home and moved into her mother’s. Amanda wrote that during Christmas break 2012, the police informed her that the topless photo she had taken two years earlier was now circulating the Internet.

Amanda documented that she felt depression, anxiety, and panic disorder. She later started using drugs and alcohol after her family moved to a new home.

One year later, the same individual who blackmailed Amanda resurfaced. The person created a Facebook using her topless photo as the profile picture and contacted all of Amanda’s classmates at her new school. Amanda was teased and she eventually had to change schools again. She started talking to an old guy friend and one day when his girlfriend was out of town, he invited Amanda over where they had sex. The boy’s girlfriend and a group of her friends physically assaulted Amanda while they shouted insults.

After the attack, Amanda attempted suicide by drinking bleach. However, she survived after being rushed to the hospital where they pumped her stomach. She arrived home from the hospital to find abusive messages about her failed suicide attempt on Facebook. Eventually, her family moved but that wasn’t enough. The male individual, who threatened to blackmail her almost three years ago, sent her topeless video to classmates, parents and teachers of her at her new school.

Soon after, Amanda started to self-mutilate and the abusive messages got even worse on social media networking websites. She overdosed on her anti-depressant pills and was hospitalized for two days.

She was found hanged in her room on Oct. 10, 2012.

Carol Todd, Amanda's mother, established the Amanda Todd Trust at the Royal Bank of Canada to accept donations to help support anti-bullying awareness and establish programs for young people with mental health problems.