Jesy Nelson has opened up about her horrific experiences with online bullying during a visit to Capital FM on Thursday. The Little Mix star, who will be speaking about her experience with trolling in the BBC One documentary Jesy Nelson: Odd One Out on Thursday an 9pm, admitted that she doesn't think she'll ever be the person she was before the abuse started.
Jesy opened up about her difficulties with online bullying
Chatting to Roman Kemp, she said: "When we got into Little Mix, that was when Twitter and all that was getting quite big. And we got given these mobile phones and they were like, 'You’ve got to have Twitter, because people need to get to know Little Mix and you girls individually.' I just remember we did the first live show and I remember being in the house at the time and everyone was gathering around watching their performances back online, and someone was like, 'Oh look, you can read what people are saying about your performance.' When we went back onto the comments, every single comment was about the way I looked. Nothing was about us as a group or our singing. It was literally like 'Jesy is repulsive' 'Jesy looks deformed, she looks absolutely disgusting, I don’t want to look at that girl anymore.'
The band was formed on The X Factor in 2011
READ: Jesy Nelson's mum reveals she 'lost' her daughter after Little Mix fame
Speaking about the profound effect the comments had on her, she added: "I’m not gonna lie, I don’t feel like I will ever be the same as I was before X Factor, because there’s a lot of things mentally that I’m still dealing with but I’m overcoming. I didn’t want to go out with my friends, I genuinely didn’t want to go to work, I didn’t want to perform on stage anymore because I just mentally used to think…when I’d be on stage, if I’d see people pointing at me and whispering, I’d think they were saying horrible things about me. I got anxiety, I had panic attacks."
READ: Little Mix star reveals online bullying led to suicide attempt
Little Mix fans have rallied around Jesy after she opened up about her brave journey, with one writing: "For every jealous internet troll, there’s thousands more people who support and adore you. we stand by you Jesy, always." Another person added: "I admire Jesy for making it through it all and having transformed into a confident woman. But what she had to go through was really not worth it. As a fan, you truly wouldn’t have known."