The remarkable Jazz Thornton is an author, filmmaker, and co-founder (along with Genevieve Mora) of Voices for Hope, a New Zealand-based, international non-profit organisation that advocates for mental health ‘through voices of those with lived experience’. In 2019, Jazz was semi-finalist for Young New Zealander of the Year, and also spoke at the United Nations’ Speak Your Mind event during the General Assembly.
The following year, she published her first book, Stop Surviving Start Fighting, a searing memoir that details depression, multiple suicide attempts and stints in psychiatric wards during her teens; followed by her second tome, My Journey Starts Here, ‘a guide to improve your mental wellbeing’. Co-authored with Genevieve and released earlier this year, the soothing pages of My Journey Starts Here are filled with inspirational quotes, colouring-in tasks, gratitude exercises to aid ‘personal reflections’, and ‘goal selection’ to help create ‘strategies for difficult moments’. Verve sits down with Jazz to find out more, beginning by asking if the techniques in her latest book are ones that she employed to help tackle her own mental health issues.
“Absolutely, pretty much all of those things are from my journey, from my actual journal from when I was in the psych ward,” she says. “One of the biggest misconceptions, especially for young people who are facing mental illnesses, is that they are just attention seeking, and this causes a lot of silence. People are deserving of help before they hit crisis point. At the moment, we have system where the care only generally comes once someone gets to an absolute breaking point; the help needs to come earlier on to prevent that from happening.”
What signs should people be on the lookout for should they be concerned about a loved one?
“Withdrawal is the most common sign, whether it be isolating and withdrawing from conversation, or a lack of interest in things that they used to love. These are important things to look out for, and it’s also important to ask them how they are and give them space to actually talk about it.”
Are you seeing more young people reaching out for help?
“Absolutely, yes. We’ve seen a lot reaching out to people like myself, and people online. What’s interesting is that a lot of younger people are struggling to reach out to parents and the older generations because there is still this kind of big misunderstanding. So although people are reaching out, they’re not always reaching out to the people who could probably be of the most help.”
Is there still a gender divide in terms of the old mentality that boys need to ‘man-up’?
“Unfortunately, that’s still often the case, especially here in New Zealand with our strong farming and rough-and-tumble culture, and that ‘she’ll be right’ attitude. Even my own following shows that it’s 87 percent females, and all of our events are very dominated by females.”
Having been abused at just three years old, Jazz was only 12 years old the first time she decided to end her own life. She would try a further 13 times, overcome with shame and pain and a genuine belief that the “world would be better off without me”. Following her final attempt, aged 20 years, Jazz was found by Constable Meika Campbell who went on to wait with her in the hospital and well into the night. The officer made Jazz promise to text her in the morning, while making a promise herself that she would then visit Jazz on her 21st birthday, which she did with a surprise knock on the door. When Jazz posted a thank-you letter on Facebook for the officer, it went viral, and they’re still in touch (“She’ll often message to congratulate me on random things that I am doing!”).
An accomplished filmmaker, Jazz’s first video, Dear Suicidal Me, has racked up tens of millions of views, while her web series, Jessica’s Tree, garnered national and international acclaim—along with a several awards. Jazz was also the subject of 2020 feature-length documentary, The Girl on the Bridge, directed by Leanne Pooley, and has even been invited for coffee with Megan and Harry to discuss her work in the mental health arena.
Absolutely, yes. We’ve seen a lot reaching out to people like myself, and people online. What’s interesting is that a lot of younger people are struggling to reach out to parents and the older generations because there is still this kind of big misunderstanding.
Helping others must also take quite the toll on your wellbeing. In dealing with this, do you employ the same techniques when dealing with your own mental health troubles?
“I think that the approach changed slightly. When I was doing it for myself, a lot of the focus was around having to fight day and night for my own wellbeing. A lot of the practices are still the same—surrounding myself with people and learning to reach out before it becomes too overwhelming—and I am a lot better at these things that when I first started advocating three years ago! My awareness of I am shot up significantly over the last few years as I was trying to figure out how to best cope with this massive influx of people knowing my story, and reaching out. It took me a while to learn how to look after myself, but I definitely know how to now.”
Beneath Jazz’s email signature is a note that reads for the purpose of self-care, she doesn’t respond to messages outside of office hours. It’s a practice that most of us should probably observe more stringently, and, adds Jazz, younger generations especially need to get more comfortable with being digitally disconnected—at the very least not making the phone the first thing that’s checked first thing in the morning.
I finish up by asking Jazz if, for all the horrors of her childhood, she harbours any happy memories, and she says that she has many.
“I loved drama and media classes at school,” she recalls, “and storytelling has always been, not only an escape for me, but a tool with which I could communicate. It’s my passion.”
If you, or someone you know, needs help immediately, call the police; if you need advice or support, consider calling:
- Lifeline 0800 543 354 or text HELP to 4357
- Suicide Crisis Helpline 0508 828 865
- Healthline 0800 611 116
- Samaritans 0800 726 666
Watch The Girl on the Bridge at thegirlonthebridgefilm.com
