I was really close friends with this guy for 2 years before we started dating. It was my first relationship and I felt really comfortable with him. We started doing some physical stuff and it was good. After a while, the pressure to go further got more intense. He wanted to take that next step in our relationship and have sex. My parents never gave me the ‘sex talk’ so I didn’t know a whole lot about it.

My family doesn't have a lot of money. It's just Mum and my two brothers. It doesn’t leave any extra for things like new clothes. People at school don't understand because they're from rich families. I feel like an outcast most of the time.

In year 12 I had been struggling to keep up with study and a part time job. The pressure was getting to me and I got stressed and depressed. I had to decide what I wanted to do after school - there was so much pressure to get into the courses that interested me.  A lot of my friends seemed really sure about what they wanted to do.  

I never really noticed how much time I spent online until I started to feel exhausted at school. I was catching up on Facebook and gaming with my friends online, but I always lost track of time and it was 2am before I got to sleep! My friends were getting annoyed because they thought I wasn’t listening to them. My parents were worried and got mad because I was always in my room on my laptop. I also realised how much work I had to do for my end of year exams.

I had just started seeing this guy from another school. He was really nice and we got along super well. One day for fun he asked me to send him a naked picture of myself. At first I was like, no way! But as we kept talking it didn’t seem like too big a deal, it was only to him. Things being so new I didn’t want it to end either. So I did.  What I didn’t realise was he forwarded that picture to one of his friends and eventually it got around to his whole year group.

I had a bunch of fake accounts created - they were using my pictures, adding my friends and sending really bad messages to everyone. I had no idea who was doing this but I started to lose friends because they thought it was me. 
I remembered my class talked about KHL one day so I decided to give them a try. They helped me so much.

I was getting down about what I was seeing on the news. Whenever I looked at my phone it felt like all I ever heard were sad or bad things happening to people. I thought ‘what if that could happen to me or my family?’. My friends at school even started to notice how sad I was feeling. I couldn't explain why I felt that way - nobody else seemed to worry about this stuff. 

When I fight with my friends it tears me up inside. I get really upset that I'll end up with no friends. I didn't have many friends in primary school and I don't want to go through that again.

I used to try and keep the peace all the time because I was so scared of losing my friends.

Now I know better because I learnt that I'm a good person and a good friend. I know that my true friends will stick by me even if we disagree. When we fight we get over it quickly and don't hold grudges.

I was pushing myself to work and study - I didn't let up. I was stressed all the time. You don't need to put yourself under that much pressure.

It's ok to take a break now and then - it really helps you feel healthy.

Having a balance is what's important. Eating healthy meals and doing regular exercise (for me it was running). Don't underestimate the effect of stress on your body.  Find out what you can do to keep stress under control in a healthy way.

I already had an annoying 9 year old brother. I did web counselling and they helped me understand how to get through my anger and learn to love the new baby.

My new baby sister is 5 months and sooooo cute.

I'm so happy I went to Kids Helpline.