As I continued to read, I realized the notebook was a diary of sorts, a chronicle of my daughter’s innermost thoughts and feelings. She wrote of her struggles, of feeling isolated, and of pressures that she couldn’t share with us. She wrote about friends who weren’t true, about feeling like she was never enough, and about a darkness that sometimes overwhelmed her.

Entry after entry, her words painted a picture of a young girl in distress, a side of her that she had hidden well behind smiles and laughter. She spoke of a secret online world where she felt she could express herself freely, where she found a community that understood her pain. But even there, she felt lost and alone at times.