Growing up in Butte, Mont., Little was a pretty happy kid. They loved theater, took dance and voice lessons, and had lots of friends. Then, in the summer between fifth and sixth grade, Little joined Instagram, Facebook and Snapchat, sidestepping the platforms’ limits by lying about their age.
“As soon as I was on social media, I couldn’t put it down,” Little recalls in a recent video interview from their bedroom in Colorado Springs, Colo. At times, they spent more than 10 hours per day on Instagram. Social media eclipsed sleeping, studying, hanging out with friends, and even eating. Instagram “felt like a safety blanket,” Little says. “It felt like something I could kind of put between me and the world.”
One day on Instagram, Little recalls receiving a suggestion to “check out this account.” Clicking the link took them to a page that was a “diary of graphic self-harm,” Little says. The accompanying captions were about not being able to take the pain anymore. “I didn’t look for it,” Little says. “I clicked a notification and was shown gore.”
