I Am A Girl

I live in the projects, ghetto.

Around here, a lot of drugs

and gangs and stuff like that.

I try to stay inside.

It's kinda like a black hole sometimes.

A lot of people here,

like, got sucked into the black hole

and they're here forever.

Like they were here since,

like, little kids

and they're still here,

on the streets, not up to any good.

So I try not to get sucked in.

Growing up,

it was kinda hard sometimes,

because it's like,

where do I fit in sometimes?

I'm not around people

that like to do the same stuff as me

so sometimes, I feel, like, by myself.

And I don't have

any brothers or sisters,

so it's like, OK, so who do you talk to?

I just had to find, you know,

my own way of expressing myself,

you know, when I was sad

and stuff like that.

And then with friends,

you can't really trust friends

because you never know, like,

who's gonna just turn on you.

So I just kept everything to myself,

and that's why I like creativity.

It means, like, so much to me

because that's how I express myself.

Writing, drawing, fashion,

music, like makeup,

like things like that,

it makes me feel better.

Hi, my name's Katie.

I'm 17 and I live in Sydney, Australia.

I'm not the super, super rich,

you know, the 1%,

but I'm definitely very privileged

and very lucky to be where I am.

We have a nice house with a big space.

I've always had

more than enough to eat, you know,

nearly everything that I need

and most of the things I want and...

Yeah, we're really lucky.

I am very much a nerd.

I love Doctor Who and Sherlock

and Veronica Mars, Avatar.

I love reading a lot.

Obviously, I'm a big Harry Potter fan.

Thing I love most

about books and stories

is escaping into another world.

Yeah, really kind of get

taken away from reality,

cos sometimes, it can be quite

boring and harsh and you just...

you need that escapism.

Often the filter between my brain

and my mouth doesn't work.

I'll say something that I don't mean,

in the heat of the moment,

like when I'm angry or when I'm upset

and it might get me in a bit of trouble,

because although I'm feeling it

at the time, I certainly don't mean it.

My school, it's a selective high school

so we're all really quite smart.

And, you know, being really nerdy

or really out there is just...

it's fine, you know, you're allowed

to be yourself at my school,

which is a really great thing

for when you're growing up because,

you know, often you have no idea

who you are and who you want to be.

When I started feeling really down

about myself

I didn't tell anyone.

I didn't want anyone in my family

to worry about me,

so I just really kept it to myself

and hoped that it would go away.

It didn't.

What most people don't understand

about depression

is, first of all,

it is an actual physical illness,

because there is a chemical imbalance

in the brain

which means you don't get

dopamine and serotonin.

And so, that way, you can't,

you know, feel good about yourself,

and everything's

just a standard flat line.

And the whole kind of thing

where, you know,

there's a light

at the end of the tunnel...

there is no light

when you're feeling like that.

You're just wandering aimlessly

in the darkness forever, you know,

and having absolutely no idea

where you're going.

So, you just want to sit down

and stop.

Something will happen that,

you know, in any other situation,

you'd be able to just brush it off,

like a mark at school

that was less than you expected.

You know, oh, this mark means

you're not going to do well in the HSC,

and then from that, you get, well,

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