Carmen: Hi Julie.... On the phone, (let me introduce you) is Julie Flynn. She is president of illstandbyyou.com and that’s all one word, no hyphen or you know apostrophe….it’s just illstandbyyou spelled out..Julie, tell us about this website.

Julie: Well, it’s a website for depression for teens and young adults. We’re there to help all teens. We’re talking to teens all over the world, we offer support, and one thing I want to make sure everybody knows, is we are not professionals, but we are here to give support and to encourage them to seek professional help. And we cover issues, all kinds of issues regarding depression.

Carmen: Right, and you know that’s another thing too, it’s like, just a place to have for kids to go to talk to somebody.

Julie: Yes, a lot of them need another adult to talk to, so a lot of them like talking to me and then I also have teen volunteers who help me, I have 5 right now. We work very hard, we really want to make a difference. The teen suicide rate is way too high.

Carmen: I believe we were talking yesterday, it’s like 14 a day, correct?

Julie: Yes

Carmen: And a lot of these kids too, this website, first of all, I wish that I had had somthing like this to go to as a teen because you don’t always want to go to your parents and talk, or go to your parents and say look I need to go to therapy. There’s not too many teens who are going to volunteer for that.

Chris: And you don’t want to go out and say alright you don’t want to go and talk to a teacher but you need to talk to another adult, somebody who is going to steer you in the right direction. Or even just something you don’t want to talk to your friends about you need someone who is maybe going through the same thing you are, but you don’t want to bring it up to one of your friends.

Carmen: And get it off your chest, just to have somebody to talk to. That’s what illstandbyyou.com is all about. I would have loved to have had, as a teen, be able to go and log on to the computer, anonymously, without my parents knowing what I was doing and talk to somebody.

Julie: Exactly, we have to stop the stigma that’s out there too. It’s pretty bad.

Carmen: Well and too,one of the main reasons that teens commit suicide, and I asked you this yesterday, we were talking a little about the interview this morning, is that one of the main reasons that teens commit suicide, has to do with the fact that they’re gay. Gay teens have the highest suicide rate of teens in general. You said there is a message board on there and you have two lesbians that monitor that board, 19 and 20 years old. Correct?

Julie: Correct

Carmen: And I liked how it was approached, it was like, you know what? It’s not something to worry about right now.

Julie: No not at all

Carmen: These feelings are normal, you could be heterosexual and having these feelings. I mean that’s just common knowledge.

Chris: Ya, when you’re a teen you start having all these different feelings you don’t know which way to turn, you don’t know who to talk to about them…

Carmen: Right, it’s perfectly normal for heterosexual males or females to have crushes on teachers of the same sex.

Chris: Ya

Julie: Exactly

Carmen: Because you’re hormonal, you’re going through all these changes and you don’t know how to interpret it, so this is a wonderful site to go to and know that you’re not going to be stigmatized for anything.

Julie: Yes, we don't judge at all. It's wonderful, it's doing very well.

Carmen: And talking too as a kid who, as a teen, I don't know if you even know this, Chris, did you know I used to cut myself?

Chris: No, I didn't.

Carmen: Ya, I used to cut myself with glass, at 12,13, and 14 years old. And, I thought, I mean I knew at the time and it wasn't a suicide thing, it was just cutting your arms from the frustration and anger.

Chris: Ya, I have heard of it before, but I didn't know you did it.

Carmen: Well, I didn't know how common it was, and Julie, that's kind of a big thing. I mean I never heard of anybody else doing it, of course we didn't talk about it back then.

Julie: Right, well I didn't know until last year, but people who cut do not want to die, they want the pain to go away.

Carmen: And that's a way to, exactly...

Chris: Redirect your pain

Carmen: Ya, to something physical because you just can't deal with the rage and the depression and everything else you have inside and this is a way, you think to get it out, but of course it's an awful thing too.

Julie: Yes

Carmen: And that’s why when I heard about this, when Julie, it was Mindy right?

Julie: Yes

Carmen: Julie and Mindy wrote us about this and I just, I really feel like this is something that parents need to know about, teens need to know about it. This is a not for profit, kids can log on, illstandbyyou.com, and encourage your teens to do that. You as a parent don’t have to know everything.

Chris: Even if your kids don’t think they are going through something right now, you guys said, you’ve got a message board and you’ve got other things up just to know what maybe some of their friends are going through so they can be sensitive when their friends come to them.

Julie: Yes, and we do have message boards for parents too, we would like parents to come to the site and get involved and understand depression more.

Carmen: Ya, Now see I think that’s wonderful and I’m really excited about this site and we’re putting it up on our surf report this morning at CarmenandChris.com, if you go to surf report, you can click on it and it will take you directly to illstandbyyou.com

Julie: That’s great.

Carmen: Well Julie, thanks for coming on with us and I know we’ve got some fund raising stuff coming up like in July, you’ve got a walk in September and Chris and I, you know as I said yesterday we completely volunteer for anything you need us for and you guys maybe need some volunteers too to help out?

Julie: Yes, we would love some volunteers, our site has gotten so many hits, we can’t keep up with the kids. We need volunteers for the message boards, and also I have some work I do in my office, and ummm, whatever they can help with.

Carmen: Okay

Julie: It doesn’t matter, and then funding also, we are going to need to expand our office. We have paper files on all these kids and we need a lot of volunteers, we need help, and to help with the fundraisers also.

Carmen: Alright Julie I’m going to get you to hold because I’m going to write down that wish list and we’re going to again put this up on our website and encourage people to go, and parents encourage your teens. You know encourage them, show them that you support them by encouraging them to talk about their problems even if it’s not with you, hey, maybe there are things you don’t want to talk to your teens about and it would be for you too so. Julie thanks for such a great website, and could ya hold on for us?

Julie: Yes, thank you Carmen

Carmen: Thank you, Julie Flynn of illstandbyyou.com, which I’m just very passionate about this site, very passionate

Chris: Great cause, it’s a great website

Carmen: Anytime you can provide a forum for kids to talk to their peers or someone else, and feel comfortable doing it, I’m all for it. So, it’s a wonderful thing.