Gross Facebook post that left a teenager too anxious to attend parties
Annie Knight was just 16 years old when a Facebook post left her too scared to attend parties and her self-esteem in tatters.
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Annie Knight was just 16 years old when a Facebook post left her too scared to attend parties and her self-esteem in tatters.
Ms Knight, then in year 10, had enjoyed a fun night at a friend’s 16th birthday party. Then someone posted a picture of a used condom in the event’s Facebook group.
“Someone tagged me in the photo even though it had nothing to do with me,” Ms Knight, now 26, told news.com.au. “This led to non-stop rumours being spread about me which couldn’t have been further from the truth.”
Ms Knight said it wasn’t just the fact that the post was cruel and designed to slut-shame her. It was the way people treated her afterwards.
“It was all behind my back but people were calling me a slut and insinuating I’d had sex with someone I’d only kissed briefly at the party,” she said.
Suddenly, the post was shared around several local private schools, including a boy’s private school, and rumours were spreading. It didn’t matter what was true or not; her peers treated the post like gospel.
It left Ms Knight with a reputation she didn’t ask for and wasn’t equipped to handle. Boys from neighbouring schools assumed she was “easy” or would act obnoxiously sleazy towards her.
“It turned me off men for a long time,” she said.
Plus, she had to contend with the fact if her peers weren’t teasing her about it, she was being called “gross” or a “slut.”
This week, along with parents from across Australia, we are calling on the federal government to raise the age limit at which children can access social media as part of a national campaign, Let Them Be Kids.
Ms Knight said the post immediately changed the way she navigated social events. She went from being a teenager who wanted to party with her mates to one who had social anxiety because she was terrified she’d be humiliated again.
“It affected my mental health so much I didn’t want to attend any social events anymore and developed a lot of social anxiety,” she explained.
She said any other birthday party she was invited to that year she didn’t attend because her “anxiety was so bad”.
It took years for Ms Knight to recover from the experience.
“It took years, my self-esteem didn’t come back until I’d left school and was 19,” she said.
In fact, it wasn’t until she started working as a waitress, a job that forced her to come out of her shell and make new friends that she started to open herself up again.
“I met some really great guys, which helped change my perspective of men after that traumatising event,” she said.
Ms Knight explained that, looking back, she understands that kids can be cruel, but social media amplifies things.
If the condom comment had just been made to her in the schoolyard, it would have hurt, but it wouldn’t have been shared around.
“I think the reality is kids and teenagers can be cruel, and if you give them the means to spread this unkindness, such as social media, it makes matters much worse,” she said.
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Originally published as Gross Facebook post that left a teenager too anxious to attend parties
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