For those of you who don’t know Love Island is a reality TV show where, as the name suggests, single people go to an exotic island to find love. I personally don’t enjoy reality TV, to begin with, but this programme seems like the biggest waste of time I’ve ever seen. However, this blog post isn’t for me to complain about the programme. This is about a slightly more serious topic of suicide.

A few members from past seasons of the show have ended up taking their own life in some way. It was obviously found out that a lot of the cast members suffered from depression, anxiety or some kind of mental health problem, which then led to suicide. And in all honesty, it is understandable. This show requires you to walk around in bikinis and swimwear and constantly get judged on your looks and your actions from the audience throughout the time you are on TV.

But you have to bear in mind, these people were not forced to go on this show. They would have been told their requirements and exactly how the show worked.

Now I am in no way suggesting that suicide is their own fault.  It never is. And it doesn’t just happen straight away, you have to spend months in a dark place before you even think about doing anything like that.

What I am suggesting is that they put themselves in a situation that would cause some kind of mental distress.

Everyone has “haters”. Whether that be because they are jealous of you and want to be like you or just because you’re a hateable person, it doesn’t matter but everyone experiences some kind of bully in their life. And it is even worse for people who are in the public eye.

For example, I realise I’m not on TV (yet) but I have my blog that is online for anyone to see. That gives people a chance to say mean comments to me. And I am aware of this and I choose not to take any shit personally. When it comes to reality TV the contestants get judged a hell of a lot and so you have to be built with a thick skin or the ability to not care, otherwise, you won’t survive.

I am comfortable to admit that I suffer quite badly with low self-esteem at times. And there are nights where I can’t even scroll through Instagram without getting upset that I don’t look like some of the girls on there. So if someone asked me if I wanted to be on Love Island I would have to say “Fuck no”.

Overall, everyone is blaming Love Island’s suicides on the public and how we are too harsh on judging the contestants on their looks. But I’m sorry if you’re not tough enough to be judged on your looks don’t walk around half naked on reality TV.

Grace Hemphill