Let me start by saying that bullying or suicide are in no way, shape, or form, trivial. That's not the message that I am trying to convey.
What I want to talk about is how 13 Reasons Why made the awful mistake of undermining the fact that Hannah Baker suffered from a mental illness. She did not take her own life simply because the kids in school bullied her. It was a culmination of the trauma she felt and experienced in high school, her inability to successfully find help for her serious problems, and the excruciating lack of the very help that Hannah so desperately needed.
From what I understand, the novel did a much better job of explaining how Hannah felt. It dove deeper into how the words and actions of the 13 affected Hannah. In the Netflix adaptation, on the other hand, it felt as if the tiniest step in the wrong direction could earn someone a tape. This made Hannah seem like a girl who would just get her feelings hurt way too easily. And that's why she killed herself. Because she got her feelings hurt.
No. No. No. No no no no no. No.
Everyone on this planet has gotten their feelings hurt, but that did not drive them to be suicidal. It is the way in which Hannah internalized these highly alarming situations that drove her to take her own life. Do not misinterpret this crucial piece of information. The constant abuse she faced inside and outside of her high school's hallways played a MAJOR part in her permanent decision-- but it was her depression that ultimately made Hannah feel hopeless, alone, and like she had no other option.
In my eyes, 13 Reasons Why failed to thoroughly explain the complexity of the feelings that people who suffer with depression and other mental illnesses experience.
On a side note, let's stop minimizing the horrid significance of mental illness in today's society and let's start taking it seriously! It took a book/movie for the wider-spread of empathy? Cmon.