Charlotte O'Brien, Corrine Lee Cheu, Dolly Everett: How many more children do we need to lose?

In September this year, Charlotte O'Brien took her own life after she was relentlessly bullied. In a farewell note, the 12-year-old pleaded with her parents to share her story to raise awareness about bullying and prevent other children from experiencing what she had.

Now, they are doing just that.

The impact of bullying and youth suicide was laid bare in Charlotte's Wish, a powerful new Sunday Telegraph documentary that aired Sunday, November 17. The feature highlights the stories of vibrant teens, including Charlotte, and 13-year-old Corrine Lee Cheu, whose lives were cut short after enduring bullying.

Charlotte's parents also appeared in a 60 Minutes interview, airing on the same Sunday, speaking about their beloved daughter.

Her mum, Kelly O'Brien, described Charlotte as the "sweetest, kindest, funniest, most helpful, amazing girl in the world.

"She was our everything," she added.

Charlotte's story.

Charlotte O'Brien, 12, took her own life in September 2024. She had suffered years of bullying at school.

Every day Charlotte would cry endlessly, her mum said, on the way to school and on the way home.

"She didn't deserve the pain she was in," Kelly wrote in an email to the school Charlotte attended a day after her daughter's passing.

"She didn't deserve girls to bark in her face or scream out her name and run away, to purposely hit her with their bag and say, 'Whoops'.

"She deserved love and kindness. She deserved to be treated with dignity and respect."

Charlotte O'Brien. Image: Charlotte's Wish

Desperate to help her daughter, Kelly said that she had reached out to the school and asked staff to intervene, but no action was taken.

In a note to her parents, Charlotte pleaded for her story to be told.

According to the Sunday Telegraph, this was her heart-breaking final plea: "Mama, please share my story to raise awareness."

Mat explained, "Her final wish was for us to tell her story and that hopefully this would gain some awareness and something positive could possibly come from this.

"I get up every morning and talk to whoever wants to talk to me about it… We need to do better for our kids than we're doing today."

Since Charlotte's passing, her parents have tirelessly campaigned to save other young children.

Speaking to 60 Minutes, Charlotte's parents spoke about the last time they saw their daughter. She appeared to be the happiest she'd been in weeks, and they thought she'd turned a corner.

"That night she skipped off to bed, literally skipped. And we never saw her again," Mat said.

Alone in her room, the bullying continued through a barrage of cruel messages on social media platform Snapchat.

The family had not allowed Charlotte to use the social media platform, but the 12-year-old found a way to hide it. The schoolgirl is believed to have only been on the app for about week — long enough to have a significant impact, Mat said.

The 12-year-old called a friend distressed over the messages she was receiving. By the morning, Charlotte was gone.

"What we've been told is some of the worst words that anybody should have to read, let alone a 12-year-old girl," Mat said.

Her parents believe that while schoolyard bullying impacted their daughter, social media meant it didn't relent when she got home.

When Kelly entered Charlotte's room the following morning, she spotted her daughter's phone.

"For me, I'm so devastated by that because I gave her that phone," she told 60 Minutes.

Charlotte's parents are weighed down by the grief of losing their little girl, but her final plea gets them out of bed each day.

"We have that sense of responsibility to her. And if we can stop it from happening again to somebody else, then maybe this is Charlotte's wish," Mat said.

Following Charlotte's death, Mat and Kelly joined the call for Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to introduce a ban on social media for kids under 16, saying more needs to be done to protect our children.

"How many more Charlottes do we need to lose? We've already lost more. How many more before we stand up and say, 'That's enough?'" Mat said.

The prime minister has since committed to rolling out a minimum age for social media.

While it won't bring their daughter back, Mat and Kelly find comfort in knowing it may save even just one child from harm.

Along with their purpose to fulfil her wish, her parents are filled with nothing but love for their daughter.

"She would be really, really heartbroken to think that she would ever be described as something that ruined our lives, so her death, as devastating as it is, can't ruin our lives, because she's what made us whole," Kelly told the Sunday Telegraph.

"So we're just going to live in love for her. We are still going to watch movies on the couch. We're still gonna to judge everyone's outfit, we are going to do all those things she loved to do. Live for her, and we are going to make change for her."

Her parents hope that Charlotte's Wish will shine a light on the urgency of addressing bullying, and serve as a rallying cry for parents, educators, and communities to take a stand.

The devastating truth is that Charlotte is not alone.

"How many more Charlottes do we need to lose?"

The Sunday Telegraph's documentary Charlotte's Wish highlights the vibrant teens who have felt the impact of bullying as Charlotte did: such as Dolly Everett who was just 14, Tilly Rosewarne who was 15 and Lauren Rafferty who was also 12.

They spoke to the family of Corrine Lee Cheu, who was 13 when she took her own life.

Corrine's mother, Jodie Fitzgerald, opened up about her daughter's suffering and the continued cruelty she's faced, even after her death.

Corrine Lee Cheu. Image: Charlotte's Wish.

"They told her to go kill herself, called her an ugly rat," Jodie told The Daily Telegraph. "And they said she would do it again if she had to.

"And this is only a month ago. And I'm like, 'Can't they just let my poor daughter rest in peace?'"

She added, "Yesterday I got a message and I deleted it and blocked the person. People saying horrible stuff about why Corrine killed herself and about our family. She comes from a very loving family, that's the part that hurts the most."

Despite repeated pleas to Corrine's school for help, Jodie said she received little support. The bullies targeted Corrine both in person and online, leaving her feeling isolated and unsafe.

"Once we knew Corrine was being bullied we did ask the school a few times 'What is going on? What is going on? And they told us that unless they see it, they can't do anything about it," Jodie said.

'This is not you. Your moods change.'

Jodie described the heartbreaking changes in Corrine's behaviour in the lead-up to her death.

"I'd go to drop her off at school and she would be in the car just crying. And I'm like, 'All right, you can stay home today,'" Jodie said.

"And then I asked her if there was something going on at school. She said 'No, no.' But then it got to the point where she started wagging because she didn't want to go to school."

Corrine's worrying behaviour continued to escalate.

"She started to change, her attitude and her moods started to change. She got more aggressive, more angry. She'd have more anger spurts, throw stuff in her room," she shared.

"She got up at 6am but still wasn't ready for school by 10am."

It was only after persistent questioning that Jodie discovered the bullying happening in hidden corners of the school.

"At the bottom of the steps, in the toilets, they were calling her an ugly rat and pushing her around and just being really cruel," Jodie said.

Corrine's torment didn't end at the school gates. Despite rules banning Snapchat in her household, Corrine secretly opened accounts where the bullying continued unabated.

"I don't really even want to know half of the stuff that was said, but just half of the stuff I found on her phone was enough," Jodie said, adding that it was the "same people that were doing it at school were also then doing it on Snapchat".

Corrine finally agreed to her mother's pleas to see a professional about her struggles.

"I said to her, 'I think it's time. This is not you. Your moods change. You are not yourself. This is not normal teenage behaviour. I've never seen you like this before,'" Jodie explained.

"And she agreed. She gave me a big hug and then went off playing with her little brother."

Jodie recounted her repeated efforts to encourage Corrine's school to take proactive steps.

"I told them, 'You have those big signs at the front of the school that light up. Why can't you be a billboard for mental health? Put some lifeline numbers up. That's all I want.'"

However, her suggestions fell on deaf ears.

Now, Jodie works tirelessly to raise awareness through Corrine's One More Light Foundation.

"It needs to stop. Too many parents and siblings are suffering," she said.

Charlotte's Wish was released on November 17. You can watch The Sunday Telegraph documentary here and the 60 Minutes episode here.

If you or anyone you know needs to speak with an expert, please contact your GP or in Australia, contact Lifeline (13 11 14), Kids Helpline (1800 55 1800) or Beyond Blue (1300 22 4636), all of which provide trained counsellors you can talk with 24/7.