Megan’s Story, Part I: Lost in the Pages
[From the YouTube description]
When a trusted book became a path to pain, one brave teen found her voice.
Megan was an eager young reader, trusting the guidance of the adults in her public school. But when a librarian recommended a book, it became a turning point—one that would shape her life forever. The words on those pages led her down a path of self-harm, depression, dangerous promiscuity, and deep anguish—all before she even owned a phone.
Megan’s story is a warning. A testament to the power of the written word to influence and shape young minds and a stark reminder that while school librarians may be experts in literature, they are not experts in the individual lives and mental health of the children they serve. With the love and guidance of an incredible mother, she found healing, strength and her voice.
Not every teen will speak up. Not every child will have a voice. Megan stands as a symbol for the silent ones—those who suffer, some unknowingly, from being exposed to explicit and vulgar content in public schools. This is her story. A story of resilience, of courage, and of the fight to protect childhood innocence.
Below are selected excerpts from the video.
My name is Megan. I’m seventeen now.
The first time [I] really started to love reading was probably kindergarten. And I just loved the “Sam I Am” books. I love books because it’s just like an adventure, an escape, another opportunity [to] experience. …
Elementary school is when COVID started, and COVID made it so I had online school for a while. And through online school I started reading a bit more books that were descriptive in nature. And when I went to … middle school, that’s when it really got worse, and it was more open and readily accessible and it was normalized. …
The stuff that I accessed online was a lot more roses and happy romance books. Maybe kissing, but it wasn’t descriptive about explicit sex. And the books that I had found and been recommended were definitely that—explicit sex.
When I started reading books like that, and then I started reading more—because it was more open in middle school—it piqued my interest and I started to read more like that, probably because I was just beginning to figure out human nature. …
I found everything I could on it, and I got heavily into that stuff. It became an addiction. I had to read something like that or I couldn’t get that fix of dopamine [or] whatever you want to call it.
It progressively got worse, because after I found out what it was, and what they do, basically, I felt like I needed that connection with someone. So I went online and I chatted with pretty much pedophiles and a whole bunch of other people, and just tried to find that connection. I put myself and my family at risk.
So I acted like the character in the book. Life was the book, for me. …
I was struggling so bad and that was an escape. That was like the only thing that would make me happy.
I was a super extroverted kid. But the more I read this, the more I thought, “I don’t need friends, I just need this connection.” So I started distancing myself not only from friends. I grew to hate myself, I grew to hate others. I hated my mother, I hated my sister, I hated everyone.
As it continued to get worse I started lying more and hiding things more. I had to go to juvie a few times because of how bad my relationship with my mother was.
It definitely stemmed from—with normal romance, because I love that love connection that was stated in books, which can really be beautiful—then it went into more of a explicit [understanding of relationships] and the explicit definitely brought me to that point. …
As a kid, if you read that, you can’t get it out of your head. You can’t just close the book and forget about it. It ingrains in your brain and it will be there forever. You can’t get that innocence back and you will not be able to un-see those words. …
It’s given [to teens] over and over until they are eventually numb to this and [are not] able to peel back that film that literally covers your every sense [so that] you can’t see what’s right and what’s wrong. It’s like putting a blindfold over someone and expecting them to run a 5K. …
The point isn’t about romance or a cute love story anymore. It’s about getting your reader in that aroused state. So that shouldn’t be in children’s libraries.
Why let schools have this on the off chance that it’ll help someone, [when] in actuality it’s more harmful than it is helpful? …
I don’t think [my teacher] understood how detrimental that book, in my hands, became.
I wish, if I could go back, I would take all of those stupid books out of my hands and just let myself be innocent, because it’s so hard to stay innocent these days. So just let [children and teens] have [their innocence] for as long as they possibly can.
Comments are closed.