Miel Abitbol, 16, is a Parisian influencer followed by thousands of people on social networks. After being a victim of school bullying and sexual assault, she turned this trauma into a strength. Testimony.
At the age of 13, Miel was a victim of bullying and sexual assault.During the lockdown, a boy in my class who I really liked asked me to send him intimate photos of myself and I accepted his request. When school started in September, he posted them on social media, the whole school knew about it, that’s when the harassment started. I was made fun of, called names, I was constantly humiliated.“, she recalls. She would go to school with a knot in her stomach. Especially since the boy who had shared the photos kept pestering her to give him oral sex. She refused, until she finally gave in, thinking that would put an end to her ordeal. Unfortunately, this only made things worse. As if that wasn’t enough, she was raped by the son of her parents’ ex-friends the following summer. At the time, she didn’t tell anyone about it, it was “a secret” as her attacker told her.
In March 2021, the descent into hell reached its peak. “I started to sink, my grades were dropping at school, I attempted suicide with medication. My parents found out everything from a hospital bed,” she tells us. Subsequently, the young girl was hospitalized several times in psychiatry, and she took antidepressants for a year and a half. At the same time, she fell into eating disorders, which isolated her and led to losing all her friends. Today, she estimates that it has been about six months since she really felt better. “It is very hard to get rid of the addictions that we had (ED, self-harm, etc.)”, she admits.
In August 2023, while she was in the car with her father, Miel had an ingenious idea: to create an application to help young people who feel alone or in distress. Called LYYNK, this application aims to re-establish the link between adolescents and their adult caregivers. “On the program: an emotional calendar to follow the evolution of their mood, fatigue, diet, but also a feature to note their disturbing ideas. For their part, adults will have access to a forum where they can interact with health professionals. The application will be available from September 12,” she explains. An innovation that led the young girl, just 16 years old, to come and testify in the Senate to help find effective solutions for the mental health of young people.