"Star Wars Kid" Says His Internet Fame Drove Him To Suicide

Macleans – Almost a billion viewers across the planet know him as the Star Wars Kid, but they’ve never heard him speak, until now. Ghyslain Raza was a normal high-school student in small-town Quebec back in 2002, a shy 14-year-old who liked to make videos. In 2003, classmates posted one of those videos on the Internet without his knowledge–in it, Raza wields a makeshift light saber, clumsily imitating a Star Wars Jedi knight. The video went viral, and the Trois-Rivières teen became one of the earliest and highest-profile victims of a massive cyberbullying attack, one that played out among classmates and strangers online. “What I saw was mean. It was violent. People were telling me to commit suicide,” the now-25-year-old recalls. Raza said he lost what few friends he had in the fallout, and had to change schools. “In the common room, students climbed onto tabletops to insult me,” he told L’actualité. It was “a very dark period,” he said. “No matter how hard I tried to ignore people telling me to commit suicide, I couldn’t help but feel worthless, like my life wasn’t worth living.” Raza said he hopes talking about his experience will help others to deal with cyberbullying, and urged other young victims to “overcome (their) shame” and seek help. “You’ll survive. You’ll get through it,” he said. “And you’re not alone. You are surrounded by people who love you.”

Fuck this kid, huh? Oh boo hoo the Galactic Empire was mean to me. Wahh. I’m so sad and dumb and fat now I’m gonna go kill myself. Bro, you have 27 million YouTube views. You’re internet famous. You know what I’d do for 27 million YouTube views? Every day I get told way worse shit than anyone said to you.

In a way, reading this story kind of has me feeling like Kyle Chandler in Early Edition. Kind of has me feeling like those girls who hear a song and immediately exclaim, “OMG this is about me!” Because, Ghyslain (awful name) Raza, you and I share the same life. Day in and day out I’m told I’m worthless and should kill myself. And I don’t do it for no 27 million YouTube views. I do it for a couple thousand twitter followers. But that’s the internet life, I guess. Some are cut out for it and some aren’t. Gotta be a warrior to get through a day on the world wide web. If a couple of YouTube commenters could drive you to kill yourself then you should just kill yourself.