“I think if I can inspire someone to get help and seek recovery, my struggle can and will be well worth it.”

Chris Ritter / BuzzFeed.

In September, BuzzFeed published an article on the ways young people are using hashtags on social media to talk about depression and self-harm. Websites and apps like Tumblr, Instagram, and Twitter are now tools for discussing these kinds of issues within communities of teens, who use codewords like #sue and #secretsociety123 to quietly connect with other people who share their feelings about suicide.

After the article was published, three young women who were interested in talking about their use of suicide-related hashtags reached out to me.

Isabel is a 17-year-old from Austin, Texas; Annie is a 14-year-old from Ohio; and Zoe is a 19-year-old from England.

On which specific hashtags they use online:

Isabel: "I usually use Instagram since my parents and relatives aren't on it. If they were to see it, it would spark a conversation I don't want to have. I'm really inspired by Demi Lovato, so I speak out about my struggles with depression, anxiety, suicide, anorexia, and self-harm on a monthly basis. I think if I can inspire someone to get help and seek recovery, my struggle can and will be well worth it. I do a post on Instagram every so often about the issues listed above. I usually use #SecretSociety123 and other hashtags like #Sue #SelfHarmmm and #Ana, depending on the subject matter."

Annie: "The hashtags on Tumblr aren't disguised. I look more than post, but the few things I have are reblogged. Their hashtags are along the lines of #alone #relapse #noonearound. But the really popular ones in the self-harm, eating disorder, and depression loop are #cutting #depressed #scars #broken #sad #worthless."

Zoe: "I use a variety of tags. When I'm posting, it's things like: suicide, suicidal, depression, MDD (which stands for major depressive disorder), OD or overdose, fat, lonely, or kill me. When I'm just browsing, then it varies; if I'm looking for something to cheer me up I'll go for things like: funny, happy, laugh, random facts. Sometimes when I'm browsing and in a worse mood than normal, it will be things like: depression, MDD, cut, bleeding, suicidal."

On how they discovered these hashtags:

Isabel: "I follow a lot of self-harm and anorexia accounts on Instagram. I also have a blog on Tumblr that I used often when I was deeply depressed. I have been using them for about over six months."

Annie: "I stumbled into these hashtags when I first started looking for a way to deal with various problems I was having. I was already self-harming and I was looking up depression-related media when the Tumblr results came up. I've used Tumblr for about a year and a half."

Zoe: "I found Tumblr a while ago and had been using it to keep up-to-date with TV shows and that kind of thing before I realized that I'm not alone in my depression and other people are going through that kind of thing too. After a quick Tumblr search, I felt a lot less alone. I saw how lonely people are and wanted to be there for anyone who needed someone to talk to, so I started my blog in 2012. I've been using Tumblr to look at these kind of tags since probably around 2011."

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