#FBF: Rebecca Black discusses going viral
Rebecca Black — now 22 — talks about the abuse and subsequent depression she went through after her song "Friday" went viral in 2011.
A message to her younger self
“The thing that kind of holds the most memory for me would be just the sheer loneliness and isolation I had after ‘Friday.’, Rebecca tells Brut.
She was 13 when her song “Friday” went viral in 2011. It was parodied and she says she received hateful messages. ”It was weird. It was overwhelming and it was scary. And nobody can teach you about that.”, she revealed.
In 2020, Rebecca Black, 22, is sharing what she went through
“I don't think people realized that I was a kid and there are certain things just like not to, like, mess with a kid. And there are also a lot of people, I think, because again, they didn't realize my age really, like, sexualized me and made fun of that. And that was a weird thing to understand, until I got older. When you're 13, you have no marker to guide yourself on what's right or not. So, when somebody tells you you're something or and tells you whether it be that you're ugly or not talented or that you should never do this, you have no choice but to believe it.”, she admits.
Black spent most of her teenage years battling depression and feeling alone
“The times that I felt the most depressed was when I not only felt like the world would never allow me to do anything really in that world ever again, or feeling like maybe the internet would ever accept me, but also just feeling like people even in my own life, friends, family, people at school at the time would never be able to see past this thing because for a while it felt like a lot of people were avoiding me like the plague.”, she confesses.
She recently took to social media to express what she wishes she could've told her younger self
“If she could see that, like, I am a functioning person and then I'm OK and I have a life and I have this love for music and art and everything in that world still, I think she would she would feel a lot more hopeful and maybe not be so hard on herself. I just wish I would have been nicer to myself. And I wish I wouldn't have believed the things the people said about me so easily. Most teenagers, most young adults, most people in general are going through it. They're just not comfortable enough to talk about it. And if I can be that person to hopefully help somebody else get through it. And that's everything.”, she concludes.
Brut.
A message to her younger self
“The thing that kind of holds the most memory for me would be just the sheer loneliness and isolation I had after ‘Friday.’, Rebecca tells Brut.
She was 13 when her song “Friday” went viral in 2011. It was parodied and she says she received hateful messages. ”It was weird. It was overwhelming and it was scary. And nobody can teach you about that.”, she revealed.
In 2020, Rebecca Black, 22, is sharing what she went through
“I don't think people realized that I was a kid and there are certain things just like not to, like, mess with a kid. And there are also a lot of people, I think, because again, they didn't realize my age really, like, sexualized me and made fun of that. And that was a weird thing to understand, until I got older. When you're 13, you have no marker to guide yourself on what's right or not. So, when somebody tells you you're something or and tells you whether it be that you're ugly or not talented or that you should never do this, you have no choice but to believe it.”, she admits.
Black spent most of her teenage years battling depression and feeling alone
“The times that I felt the most depressed was when I not only felt like the world would never allow me to do anything really in that world ever again, or feeling like maybe the internet would ever accept me, but also just feeling like people even in my own life, friends, family, people at school at the time would never be able to see past this thing because for a while it felt like a lot of people were avoiding me like the plague.”, she confesses.
She recently took to social media to express what she wishes she could've told her younger self
“If she could see that, like, I am a functioning person and then I'm OK and I have a life and I have this love for music and art and everything in that world still, I think she would she would feel a lot more hopeful and maybe not be so hard on herself. I just wish I would have been nicer to myself. And I wish I wouldn't have believed the things the people said about me so easily. Most teenagers, most young adults, most people in general are going through it. They're just not comfortable enough to talk about it. And if I can be that person to hopefully help somebody else get through it. And that's everything.”, she concludes.
Brut.