Powerful message
WHEN a happy Territory girl who loved butterflies and books took her life earlier this year, it sent shockwaves through Australia.
Now, in an incredible new interview with Amy Jayne Everett’s parents, they reveal what made their daughter tick, what she loved doing and how she could have grown up to be anything she wanted to be.
Affectionately known as Dolly, the 14-year-old from a farm near Katherine took her own life in January after being relentlessly tormented by online bullies. It rocked the tightknit community and sparked a nationwide debate about cyberbullying and bullying in our schools.
Her parents Tick and Kate have revealed what their lives were like before that devastating day in January and how content their daughter seemed living at their cattle ranch.
“She had so much to live for,” Mrs Everett told A Current Affair.
“I wish she could see herself through my eyes and not through the eyes of the people who made her feel like that.
“In my eyes she was this gorgeous, amazingly funny and talented girl that had so much to live for and could have been anything she wanted to be.”
The grieving parents have been vocal in trying to raise awareness around cyberbullying since Dolly’s death.
Before she died, Dolly A younger Amy ‘Dolly’ Everett sketched a picture of a young woman doing a bend back beneath the words: “Stand up, speak even if your voice shakes.”
“This powerful message tells the dark, scary place our beautiful angel had travelled to,” the family said in a statement shortly after her death.
“We are not concerned with the who or the why of who pushed our daughter to this point, we just want to save another family going through the sadness and tragedy that our family is experiencing.
“Stop Bullying, Be Kind, Do It For Dolly.”
Dolly’s death has led to sustained calls from concerned parents across Australia to tackle the issue of bullying in the nation’s schools and online. Parents have also been sharing the heartbreaking stories of what their children have been going through.