Jen in Ohio<\/a><\/strong>:<\/p>\nA fair-skinned boy approximately age 14 with short dishwater blond hair sits in a desk chair. There are closed window blinds behind him. He wears earbuds and faces the camera while he holds up a series of white index cards with black marker writing and music plays. The only audio is the song Breathe Me, by Sia. Lyrics are here.<\/p>\n
Card 1: Hi I\u2019m Jonah.<\/p>\n
Card 2: I look happy, right?<\/p>\n
He forces an obviously fake smile.<\/p>\n
Card 3: Well, IM. NOT. What you all see, is the fake me.<\/p>\n
Card 4: \u2026But I\u2019m the real Jonah Mowry. I\u2019ve done things\u2026<\/p>\n
Card 5: Things I\u2019m NOT proud of.<\/p>\n
Card 6: I\u2019ve cut\u2026..a lot. I have SCARS.<\/p>\n
He raises his arms, one by one, lifts his sleeves and turns his shoulders forward for the camera, showing his scars.<\/p>\n
Card 7: Suicide was an option\u2026.many times.<\/p>\n
He looks off to the side. He has probably been crying or near-crying throughout but this is the point at which it breaks through and becomes apparent. He looks back into the camera.<\/p>\n
Card 8: \u2026The first time I cut myself was in the SECOND GRADE<\/p>\n
Card 9: I get bullied everyday\u2026.This started in 1st Grade (he is using multiple underlining now, but I don\u2019t know the html for that)<\/p>\n
Card 10: \u2026And I\u2019m starting eighth grade next month.<\/p>\n
He briefly raises a hand and wipes a tear from his eye. He looks down into his lap. He looks back into the camera and swallows hard.<\/p>\n
Card 11: I\u2019m not ready. \u2026.I have one close friend left.<\/p>\n
Card 12: The rest are starting high school<\/p>\n
Card 13: Im scared (again with the multiple underlining)<\/p>\n
Card 14: To go back.<\/p>\n
He looks up and exhales heavily, then down into his lap again, then up again, he is crying harder now and tears are beginning to stream down his cheeks.<\/p>\n
Card 15: A lot of people hate me\u2026<\/p>\n
Card 16: I don\u2019t know why\u2026.<\/p>\n
Card 17: But i gues i do.<\/p>\n
Card 18: Cuz I kinda hate me too\u2026.<\/p>\n
He takes a deep breath.<\/p>\n
Card 19: Gay. Fag. Dick. Douche. Homo. Asshole.<\/p>\n
His expression here is heartbreakingly demoralized.<\/p>\n
Card 20: The list goes on and on.<\/p>\n
Card 21: I can\u2019t do this anymore!!! (Behind the card, he wipes his tears.)<\/p>\n
Card 22: Im tired of bing Torn Down.<\/p>\n
Card 23: And building myself up to only be torn down AGAIN.<\/p>\n
He pauses, breathes, looks up and to the left, breathes some more.<\/p>\n
Card 24: But\u2026.<\/p>\n
Card 25: I\u2019m not going anywere\u2026<\/p>\n
He wipes more tears from his eyes; this time there\u2019s a subtle hint of defiance in the gesture.<\/p>\n
Card 26: Because I\u2019m STRONGER than that\u2026<\/p>\n
Card 27: And\u2026<\/p>\n
Card 28: I have a million reasons to be Here.<\/p>\n
He opens his hands and drops the stack of cards, looks into the camera, steels his mouth, waves his hand, and reaches forward to turn the camera off. Cut to black.<\/p>\n
End transcript.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
It speaks for itself: Edited to add the following description and transcript, helpfully provided by Jen in Ohio: A fair-skinned boy approximately age 14 with short dishwater blond hair sits in a desk chair. There are closed window blinds behind … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":49,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[115],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14617","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-homophobic-zaninessmore-lgbtq-issues"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14617","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/49"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14617"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14617\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14689,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14617\/revisions\/14689"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14617"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14617"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14617"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}