The series touches on many serious issues, despite being a story of fantasy sex, drugs and rock n roll. The characters are gorgeous, talented and rich, but they are also all flawed and come from hard backgrounds, lacking love, support and comfort. For some this would lead to feelings of isolation, low self esteem and insecurity, and that comes out in different ways.

Tia was the character I decided to use to bring self harm into the plot. You might think, she wasn’t bullied, or sexually abused, as you might think would lead her to self harm? But it doesn’t always need to be that obvious a reason. I found this list below on www.mind.org.uk/Self-Harm‎

Some people have described self-harm as a way to:

• express something that is hard to put into words
• make experiences, thoughts or feelings that feel invisible into something visible
• change emotional pain into physical pain
• reduce overwhelming emotional feelings or thoughts
• have a sense of being in control
• escape traumatic memories
• stop feeling numb, disconnected or dissociated (see dissociative disorders)
• create a reason to physically care for yourself
• express suicidal feelings and thoughts without taking your own life
• communicate to other people that you are experiencing severe distress.

Tia would fall into the first five of these categories. She wanted to feel her pain that was on the inside. She said it made her feel better. Dante, who has his own issues, helps her through it, but it also opens up a whole new can of worms with Jay – addiction. But that’s a whole other blog post.

Tia is a tough cookie on the outside, but inside she is hurting.