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Nose for News by Sarah Stultz

I came across a news article on the Facebook pages of a few of my friends from my hometown last week. After seeing more than one person share the article, I decided to click on the link to see what it was all about. The story told about a 10-year-old girl in Virginia who died by suicide after being bullied.

The young girl was described by her parents as “fearless” and “full of energy,” and her parents said she enjoyed showing love to those around her.

They said their daughter’s empathy for others may have made her a target for bullies at school.

I’ve been thinking about this little girl named Autumn ever since, and it breaks my heart to read that a girl so young struggled like this.

Autumn’s mother was quoted in one of the articles I read saying she had conversations with her 12- and 17-year-old children about suicide but never thought she would need to do so yet with her 10-year-old child.

At the age of 10, I don’t even remember being worried about attending school or friends, though I remember once I hit middle school feeling more of the pressure to fit in and feeling more pressure about body image.

Nowadays that pressure is even more intense, and students are facing additional challenges only made worse with the growth in cell phone use.

Being bullied at school is one thing, but being bullied by someone through social media or text message on the phone potentially 24/7 is a whole separate situation with sometimes less consequences because it is not always as readily visible.

According to data shared in New York Times Best-Seller “The Anxious Generation,” suicide rates for both adolescent boys and girls ages 10 to 14 have gone up exponentially since about 2008. Emergency room visits for self-harm for girls in the same age range have gone up 188% since 2010 and increased 48% for boys.

In the same time period, anxiety has also gone up substantially for adults under 50.

In the coming weeks in the Tribune, we are hoping to explore the rise in mental health challenges facing youth and how increased cell phone use has played into what is being seen.

We also hope to dig into these numbers more and explore some of the mental health resources in the area and some of the challenges to resources that we often face in rural areas.

If you have a personal story you would be willing to share surrounding any of these topics, I ask that you please reach out to me at sarah.stultz@albertleatribune.com or 507-379-3433.

You can choose to share as much or as little as you feel comfortable. Please help us raise awareness.

Sarah Stultz is the managing editor of the Tribune. Her column appears every Wednesday.