Ask.fm concerns - RIP Hannah Smith

Hello there, buddies.

I want to start this post off by saying RIP Hannah Smith. Hannah was only 14 when she took her own life last week. 

Just as a warning to my readers, if there are any comments of a negative kind surrounding this matter you will be reported and blocked. Suicide is a very serious matter and I want no negative comments surrounding this at all.

Hannah was bullied online by people using the website ask.fm. For all of you who do not know what ask.fm is, it is a website where people can sign up and ask others questions and post comments to people. There is the option to ask questions anonymously so that you cannot be identified. The site is extremely controversial and is based in Latvia. Ask.fm have issued a statement saying that they are not responsible for the content posted and that they do not monitor what is posted. This is a discussion point I shall move on to later.

Hannah, who was from Leicestershire, hanged herself due to comments posted on this website last Friday. She indirectly called for help by posting an image saying "You think you want to die, but in reality you want to be saved" on a social media site on Thursday, the day before she took her own life. 

Hannah's father posted this message on his Facebook page:

"On Friday morning my daughter was found hanged. Last night I seen her ask fm account and someone had been telling her to die. The person that created this web site should be done for manslaughter  (sic.) any parents that have children please dont (sic) let them go on this site"

"My heart is broken in 2 and is gonna take a long time to repair I just hope that none of you have to go through the pain Im goin through rite now and love u all (sic)"

I personally find this so heartbreaking. The father also posted an image of flowers that had been placed outside Hannah's house.

The Leicestershire police have seized both her phone and her laptop to be used in the investigation. 

Various messages have been posted on Facebook by her friends, boyfriend and family saying how shocked and saddened they are at her sudden death. I will not be posting these messages on here out of respect for the involved people and to not further show their identity.

This is not the first time that a teenager has taken their own life over comments made on this website. Two girls ages 15 and 13, and a boy aged 15 have also taken their own lives due to these awful comments.

There has been a tribute page set up for the teenager online which currently has over 6000 supporters; both of friends and strangers offering their support.

Hannah received some incredibly horrible comments on her ask.fm page where people called her a variety of awful names and many told her to kill herself or to die. Someone even told her that her uncle deserved cancer and to die. This is completely unacceptable and no one ever deserves anything like that whatsoever. There were many comments on her page, of which I will not be mentioning on here due to the incredibly harsh nature of them. 

All of the comments posted to Hannah's page were all done by an individual, or group of individuals, anonymously so their identities could not be traced. This I find highly pathetic. How can someone say things like that to a person online and feel nothing for what they have said? Ask.fm, along with many other social media sites, allows people to use the internet as a mask and hide behind it. They feel big and clever on the internet when they think they are unidentifiable. I hope for Hannah's sake that the vile humans who posted these comments to her page are traced and charged for her death. I do not even care how old they are, things like this should be completely intolerable.

I have a strong hate for this website, which has now only been deepened since hearing about this. Ask.fm is a website which simply fuels hate and pretty much no good ever comes out from it. Hannah was tormented for pretty much every aspect of her life, seemingly by people who knew her, due to this website. Frankly I agree with her father, Dave, in that either the creators of the website or the people who wrote the comments should be charged with her death. Many people will probably argue against this, but there is a rule in law called the 'but for' test. This means that but for the actions, the result would not have occurred. This definitely applies here - but for Hannah taking to this website and receiving these comments, she would not have been driven to taking her own life. Now all you awful people out there who are thinking that it is "her fault" I ask you this: do you sign up for a website expecting to be hauled this huge amount of vile abuse? No. You do not. How would you feel if this was your child? I am telling you, even I feel absolutely helpless after reading this case.

 I will go out of my way to get this site taken down if I have to. No one should ever suffer the amount she did, nor should they receive the hurtful and vile comments that were sent to Hannah. The sheer fact that she was affected so much by the comments to the extent that she took her life should prove that this website is completely vile. 

I believe this calls for an extreme crackdown on bullying and cyber bullying. Although it is probably an unsolvable situation, there can be things done to lessen it, and to protect vulnerable young people. 

RIP, Hannah.

I ask you to share this post and to sign this petition by clicking here to ban the Ask.fm site to prevent further deaths.

Thank you.

Toodle-oo.

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The reason behind the death of Cory Monteith

I yet again have the unfortunate job of revealing to you more details surrounding the cause of death of the Glee star.

The will be a very quick and simply informative post.

After the autopsy was fast-tracked through the system, it has been reported that a cause of death has been established.

The coroner found that Cory died of a fatal combination of alcohol and heroin. Despite the actor coming out of rehab and staying sober, it was reported that he lead something of a double life. He reportedly was a hard-worker whilst in LA, but as soon as he returned to Vancouver he associated with friends who fueled his addictions.

After a report suggested that drugs were not a reason behind his death, the toxicology report clearly stated otherwise. It has now been reported that evidence of drugs usage was evident in the room.

The investigation is continuing into the tragic death of the 31 year old actor, with more details to follow.

His co-star girlfriend released a statement on Sunday asking for privacy and close sources said that she is devastated and inconsolable.

Glee officials are still unaware how they will deal with the death of the star in the TV series, but are organising meetings to discuss it. It is undoubted that Cory's death will have a huge impact on the show, leaving a massive gap where he used to stand. 

Even as a fan, I found his death very upsetting. There will no doubt be something missing when the awkward but unbelievable cute Finn Hudson doesn't appear in the new series of Glee, set to debut in the USA in September.

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RIP Cory Monteith

It is with a saddened heart that I learned today of the death of Glee star Cory Monteith. 

The 31 year old was found in his room at the Fairmont Pacific Rim Hotel in Vancouver, Canada.

Cory has only just come out of rehab, yet it is still unaware of whether this is a drugs-related death. An autopsy will be conducted tomorrow (Monday) to determine the cause of death (I shall keep you posted with updates), but it is said that no foul play is involved.

Monteith, who played the character of Finn Hudson in the hit TV show Glee, was dating co-star Lea Michele. 

Hundreds of tributed have been piling in on Twitter from fans, friends and celebrities. Monteith's co-star Mark Salling responded to the news this morning with a simple but heartbreaking "no".

The news spread over Twitter this morning and currently several hashtags are trending worldwide:
#AllFandomsHereToSupportGleeks
#RipCoryMonteith
#StayStrongLea
#Finn
#Gleeks
#DontStopBelieving 

I myself was awoken this morning by a text from a friend alerting me of the news. I most definitely did not believe it at first and it has taken until now, having read about 40 news articles for it to actually settle in.

A lot of you will be thinking "why are you so upset over this? You didn't even know him". Well to you people I say this:

When you are a dedicated member of a fandom (the Glee fandom naming their members Gleeks) you do tend to form an emotional attachment to characters and actors. Whether you view this as weird or not, a part of something you love is now missing. Glee will never be the same without Cory in it. Waking up this morning to find that a vital part of one of your most favourite things is missing is really hard. A lot of people are going through the same thing this morning, some such as family, friends and co-stars of Cory will obviously be considerably more upset. The Glee fandom will now, and forever will be, missing one of its most important links. Cory will not be forgotten. Many fandoms around the world have come together this morning in support of Gleeks and the family are friends of Cory. Many have started a trend on Twitter called #MentionYourIdolToTellThemYouLoveThem after many Gleeks have posted images such as these:

My thoughts go out to Lea Michele who has to deal with everything. After writing and rewriting something regarding her, I found a Twitter image which explains it all perfectly.

Glee is currently up for a Teen Choice Award, so please do go vote for them by clicking HERE in memory of Cory.


Now all that is left to say is that my thoughts really do go out to his family, friends and especially to Lea. They have to unshakable support of the fandom, and of everyone.

RIP Cory Monteith x

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What's in a name?

Hello there, buddies!

I had originally planned this post for a lot later in the lifespan of my little blog, but due to the recent media shitstorm (to be frank), I think this is the right time to talk about it. 

If you do not know what I am talking about, this will be referring to Katie Hopkins little scrap with the lovely Holly Willoughby on ITV's This Morning. This was all based on the fact that Katie judges a child based on their name, and if she doesn't like the name, or thinks that it belongs to the child of a "working class" family then she forbids her children from playing and interacting with the child.

Katie branded names such as Tyler, Charmaine and Chardonnay as "working class" and that she associated them with not doing homework, always being late, and being badly behaved. She then goes on to say that she dislikes a large variety of names such as geographical names, names related to seasons, and footballer's names. This I find slightly ironic as one of her children is named India.....is this not a geographical location? After being confronted by Phillip Schofield about this, she claimed that India was not a location. Hear that, map makers? You need to take India off the map as it is no longer claimed as a location!! Another one of her children is named Poppy, which could be related to a season, no?

Does she not think that forbidding her children from playing with others is restricting them? I think it might come back to bite her on the ass one day when her children lack specific social skills and become snobs like their mother. Then again this may be something that she wants. Her children are not going to get the opportunity to interact with people of their own age, but of different backgrounds, which may affect them later in life when they enter the working world.

I strongly dislike judgmental people (you shall see this soon when I write another rant surrounding this) and for someone to judge a child of all people really ruffles my feathers. Has she never heard of never judging a book by its cover? I am a strong believer of this, and I cannot stand it when I hear so many people, including my mother, judging a person by small things such as their appearance. There is no way that she can know the background of these children. Besides, they didn't choose their names did they? The fact that she won't even give this child, chosen by her own children, a chance really pisses me off. 

She also then said she dislikes names of children meaning 'beautiful' to which Holly informed her that her own daughter is called "Belle". Katie then essentially backtracked her statement by saying that any child of Holly's would be beautiful. She completely went against what she just said....this also shows she judges people by how they look. Is she an idiot? She isn't exactly model-looking is she? She even admits this herself in the interview! 

Katie claims that children with intelligent names are likely to be more intelligent and have better future prospects. Since when does a name make a child more intelligent? I am sorry, I didn't realise that a name injected wisdom in to a person's brain. In a previous interview, Katie has said that she thinks people with the name Tyronne are more likely to become criminals. Well, frankly I find this quite racist. I know a lovely guy named Tyronne who is NOT a criminal, nor will he ever be. Furthermore, Katie says that she looks for children with good prospects for the future. After a bit of research, I have discovered that her children are quite young. Now I don't know about you, but I didn't know what I wanted to do with my life until about two years ago (I am approaching 20 years old now), so how can a say 10 year old have good future prospects?! This I just find absurd. 

I take my hat off to Anna-May Mangan who was opposing Katie in the debate. She really stood her ground, and I have to say I agree with her. She labelled Katie as an "insufferable snob" and claimed that her argument was "snort worthy". Anna-May then went on to say that judging a child by their name is old fashioned and unkind. This lead Katie to retaliate with something that clearly offended Holly as the women began to have a debate among themselves leading Phillip to have to tell them all to be quiet. 

I literally cannot comprehend why Katie would hold her children back so much! A child should be free to both make their own mistakes in life and also to befriend who they so wish. If you don't make mistakes, how can you be expected to learn, and to become a better person? I shall have you know, I befriended someone with what Katie would call an "acceptable name" who turned out to be everything she has named as someone who would have a lower class name. So what do you say to that, Katie? A name does not define a person whatsoever, and anyone can be a hateful, snobby and spiteful bitch. 

I do not think Katie is in any place to judge someone based on their class after having been on several reality TV shows....and being caught having sex in a field with a married man, do you? She is clearly a classy lady, Mrs Snobby-Pants. 

Branching off from this slightly to something which has royally pissed me off. Katie has claimed that people with tattoos will never be high achievers. I am a proudly tattooed person, and I am currently studying at university doing Bsc (Hons) Criminology and Criminal Justice Studies. Now then, Katie, would you say that I am not achieving high? My tattoos have never held me back from anything at all, and have in fact had the opposing effect with employers actually welcoming this as it shows diversity and individuality. I think you might find that many people in a much higher status than Katie are tattooed also. I have often wondered to myself if Katie has seen the image of a tattooed doctor? (Below). 

Looking at the first picture you would have no idea that this guy had tattoos, yet I guarantee if anyone saw him looking like he does in the second picture that they would brand him as a "thug". This man is a high status surgeon I believe. Katie, would you class him as an underachiever? I wouldn't - this guy saves lives on a daily basis. I would say that is an amazing achievement, would you not?


I am going to end this here for now, it may be continued at a later date. 

I have to say, before these things I actually had a small amount of respect for Katie as I admire the fact that she is proud to speak her mind. However, this respect has completely diminished as I have realised how judgmental and narrow-minded she is.

Toodle-oo, peeps!

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