PASADENA, TX -- Many parents fear their children spend too much time online using social media to connect with strangers. But one local teenager is using social media to reach out across the country and help other youth. She's not a professional counselor, but instead someone who has navigated her journey through insecurity, failures and self-inflicted pain.
A simple empty room in her family's Pasadena home serves as a studio for 16-year-old Jasmine Macias to reach her audience.
"That's where I went wrong, that was my mistake. I didn't love myself so I believed everybody else's words before my own," she said.
She has an online audience of 16,000 Instagram followers, 14,000 on YouTube, and 70,000 on Facebook -- a true nationwide Internet miss popularity who just years ago felt like an outcast.
Macias began by posting inspiring words and funny videos about her teenage experiences but went viral when she revealed her sad journey: struggles with low self esteem, bullying, depression, suicidal thoughts and cutting.
"It doesn't help you, it drags you in deeper. It makes you more depressed, it makes you more sad and in the end, you're still sad, you're still feeling ugly, you're still feeling depressed and now you have cuts," Macias said.
Samantha was struggling with depression across the country in Los Angeles. We spoke with her via Skype and she calls Macias her idol for what she's done for her and other teenagers in pain. Media.
"Because of her they have stopped cutting, they have stopped doing so many things and they're on their way to being a happier person. I think she makes a great impact to my life and to other people's lives," Samantha told us.
Not bad for the teen from Pasadena who's throwing a lifeline to other teens through her courageous confessions and her home video camera.
Macias' next goal is to launch a TV talk show aimed at teenagers. She'd like to be the next Oprah Winfrey.