PennLive – 2010
In response to several local suicides, 19-year-old Harrisburg Area Community College student Alexa Kylen started PleaseLive.org, a resource for anyone struggling with suicide or suicidal thoughts.
Kylen said not only do youth battle the societal stigma still attached to mental illness, they fight with the very real — but not always accurate — fear that reporting depression or suicidal thoughts to their parents will lead to punishment.
“I tell them a vast majority of parents won’t be angry or yell at them,” Kylen said. “They’ll be worried. They’ll say, ‘Let’s get help.’ They’ll be glad you told them.”
And if a child’s home life can’t guarantee that response, Kylen said, there are a host of people, herself included, who care enough about young lives to connect them to people who will.
Excerpt from:
Pennlive Article, 2010