Teen Suicide
Lucas Pinto
The activism topic that I have chosen to write about is teen suicide. Did you know that
suicide is a leading cause of death in the United States? One of the reasons that many teens
commit suicide is bullying. I will also share ways that suicide can help to be prevented. A
celebrity that you may know that has had their battles with suicide is Paris Jackson. This just
goes to show that this is one issue can affect anyone. This is why I feel that this issue needs to be
more openly discussed and more needs to be done to help prevent teen suicides.
Suicide is a leading cause of death in the United States. Since 2017 about 47,178 people
have killed themselves by suicide. This has made suicide the 10th leading cause of death.
Statistics show that by 2020 there will be one person every twenty seconds committing suicide
every day. Also, more men than women commit suicide. This is why suicide needs to stop. I feel
so strongly about this because my cousin, Jaden, hung himself when I was in the 4th grade. He
was only 14 years old. We were close and his suicide still affects my family every single day.
One of the reasons that many teens commit suicide is bullying. Every 7 minutes a child is
bullied. Students that are bullied are around 2 to 9 times more likely to consider suicide than
non-victims. Over 14 percent of school students have considered suicide, and almost 7 percent
have attempted suicide. Even though my cousin was very loved by all of his family and friends
and was popular, he was bullied, and that was why he committed suicide. I feel that this is
horrible and helping to put a stop to bullying would help to stop some teen suicides.
How can we help prevent suicide? Over one million people each year commit suicide.
Maybe if people were to be more supportive to family and friends this could show them that they
do mean something, and are important to the people in theirs lives. We can also check on people
we care about if we think that something is wrong with them, and talk to them. I think that
people sometimes do not feel like they have someone to talk to and they cannot be saved from
their problems, like my cousin.
A celebrity that has helped to bring more awareness to suicide is Paris Jackson. She is a
Grammy Award winner that has been very open about her battles with her many suicide attempts
after her father, Michael Jackson, passed away. She has discussed it in many interviews and
videos. She talks about how she was bullied, how she felt like she was not able to do anything
right, how she was sexually assaulted, and how all the fame became too much for her to deal
with. All these things are what lead to her multiple suicide attempts. She also has talked about
how she went to a therapy school for a year and a half to help her get better. She said that she is
thankful for the school she went to and the programs that she still goes to when she feels that she
needs a break.
Teen suicide is an issue that I feel needs to be more openly discussed and more needs to
be done to help prevent it. Helping to stop bullying, talking to people, and showing people that
we care about them and that they are important can be great ways to start preventing teen
suicides. There are man ways we can show people to work through their problems without them
choosing to commit suicide. After my family having to deal with it from my cousin, this is a very
important issue to me, and I hope that we can help to make a difference in stopping more teen
suicides.