WHY we need to talk about everything wrong with the adaptation of 13 Reasons Why

Teen suicide is NOT something that should be glamorized, packaged and especially co-produced by a Hollywood star like Selena Gomez. Let's face it...Gomez sensationalized the entire book and re-focused the plot on a dead girl's revenge.

It's apparent after watching 13 Reasons Why that none of the writers or producers knew they were poking a pretty large bear. #MentalHealthAwareness

This show is dangerous. It's dangerous that Hannah Baker is now a universal example for modern-day high school kids. It's unhealthy that the show romanticizes suicide as a way to get revenge. The show is marketed to young adults at a highly impressionable stage in their lives. Students nowadays are even encouraged to use cell phones in school.

But add social media, group chats, hormones and insecurity, and that same phone often becomes a shovel to dig a grave.

This show is problematic. The message is clear to teens: Commit suicide if you want justice over the bullies. Intended or not, this message is broadcasted through a multi-million dollar corporation and has already resonated in grade schools across the country.

I guess I should start with the plot, for those who never read the 2007 book or have interest in watching the show. Hannah Baker is a high-school girl who commits suicide and leaves behind a series of tapes that she recorded before slicing her wrists. (She makes copies of the tapes and leaves a set of copies in the hands of a "trusted individual.") Fast-forward to Hannah's old pal Clay, who receives the tapes in the mail after her death. Each side of every tape is a reason why she killed herself, according to Hannah.

First of all, suicide as a way to "get back" against your classmates would never work in real life. Outside of Hollywood, you only end up hurting those who care about you the most. The rest of the world will move on, with or without you. But you leave behind a great deal of pain for everyone else.

Secondly, the show portrays Hannah as manipulative and very in-touch with her emotions. Of course she has flaws, but she blames everyone for her mental illness. Depression is a chemical imbalance, it's a condition that is out of an individual's control. It's not something to blame on a guy turning you down. It's not something you should use to get revenge on others.

Thirdly, she takes her friend Clay for granted, even though he stays by her side and appreciates her for who she is. Hannah is melodramatic and not innocent at ALL. She's always searching for the "cooler" person to hang out with, but still asking shy Clay for constant favors. When nobody else wants to ask her to the dance or talk with her at a party, boom, there's Clay. She constantly makes fun of how skinny and underdeveloped he is compared to the jocks. She doesn't ask him to hang out outside of school and work. Hannah is determined to stick with the crowd who started rumors about her.

Finally, in the show Hannah witnesses a rape. She stays huddled in a corner and just watches it happen. She watches a frat boy rape her unconscious friend and does nothing but cry. After he leaves, she doesn't take her friend to the hospital for a rape kit. She doesn't take a picture of the rapist with her cell phone (#21stcentury) but she simply cries and throws a blanket over her friend. She never calls the police. She leaves and melodramatically prioritizes herself instead of aiding her friend. She doesn't tell anyone about the rape. Not her parents. Not the police. Not Clay.

This show treats Hannah's suicide as something heroic and romanticized. The show also treats adults like the enemy, the "other" who can't understand the tangled spiderweb of high school emotions. Overall, Hannah Baker should never be the poster-child for teen suicide awareness.