Ten years ago, a YouTube video called “Star Wars Kid” became one of the most popular memes on the Internet that didn't involve cats. The clip featured a heavyset teenager from Quebec named Ghyslain Raza, swirling around a makeshift lightsaber. But, as we've all suspected, there is a dark side to becoming famous on a platform where complete strangers can ridicule you anonymously.
In his first interview since the video made its way online, Raza tells L'actualite that, “People were telling me to commit suicide... I couldn't help but feel worthless, like my life wasn't worth living.” An earlier report by Vice three years ago said that the taunting got to the point where Raza quit school and institutionalized himself due to extreme depression.
But things did, eventually, get better. Raza is now the president of a local heritage conservation society where he lives in Canada, and has words of hope for those who have been similarly teased online (with or without the aid of an imaginary lightsaber). “You'll survive. You'll get through it,” Raza said. “And you're not alone. You are surrounded by people who love you.” As we learned from “The Social Network,” the internet isn't written in pencil, it's written in ink. But what Raza has proven is that sometimes you can get some damn good white-out and everything will work out just fine.
[via L'actualite h/t Gawker]
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