Tarran Frost vividly remembers the moment a rumour began to follow her through school corridors, quickly spiralling into relentless bullying. The now-19-year-old from Melbourne has spoken out about the years she spent navigating the blurred lines between traditional schoolyard cruelty and something more modern and invasive.
The Start of the Harassment
It began as a falling out with a friend and an ex-boyfriend. At first, it was just laughter and attempts to put her in a bad position. But it escalated rapidly. By Year 10, what had once been low-level tension had morphed into constant harassment. Then came the rumours—deeply personal, sexualised claims that spread across the school and reshaped how people saw her. That was probably the worst part, she said, describing it as really embarrassing.
The Deepfake Incident
At the age of 16, a digitally manipulated image—what she later understood to be a deepfake—began circulating among students. It was AirDropped across phones on a school bus and shared beyond her immediate social circles. At the time, she did not even know what it was. She recalled someone telling her there was a nude photo of her going around, and she was bewildered. When she finally tracked down the deepfake, what upset her most was not the content itself, but the fact someone had deliberately created an AI-generated image of her with the intention of humiliating her. The image was obviously fake and badly edited, but the person who sent it thought it was real. She remembers thinking why someone would go out of their way to make it.
Understanding Deepfakes
A deepfake is typically an image or video in which a real person's face or body has been digitally altered to create a false depiction. She suspects the person behind the deepfake was someone she once considered a friend, but she will never know for sure. The image fed directly into the rumours already circulating, reinforcing a narrative she had no control over. It changed her identity, as people started believing things about her that were not true. It shaped how they saw her and soon began to change how she saw herself.
Persistent Bullying Beyond School
What made the experience particularly overwhelming was its persistence. The bullying did not stop when she left school grounds—it followed her home, onto her phone, and into the night. There were constant prank calls, her number was given out to random people, and they sent videos and called through the night. It was non-stop. Even milestones meant to mark achievement were disrupted. When she delivered her graduation speech as school captain in Year 12—a role she had worked hard to earn—an air horn was blasted mid-speech. It was always a constant effort to make everything she did really difficult.
Physical Manifestation of Stress
The impact of the stress soon began to manifest physically. Each morning, she would catch the bus with friends she liked, but as the school approached, her body would react before she could. She developed a stomach ache every day, her body physically reacting to being bullied. Soon, the symptoms intensified, and she developed rashes across her body, worrying something more serious was wrong. She went to the doctor thinking she might have an allergy to gluten, but after tests, the doctor suggested something else was going on. She broke down when she realised the bullying was affecting her physically. By the end of each school day, she was exhausted, using so much nervous energy just getting through the day.
Inconsistent School Response
Despite the severity of what was happening, the response from her school was inconsistent, shaped in part by staffing shortages and ongoing disruptions following the pandemic. Every time she told a teacher, they would leave, making it too hard to keep explaining everything again and again. While some individual teachers offered support, broader action was limited. The school arranged for her to be separated from certain students in class, but the underlying issues were never fully addressed. The person behind the deepfake was never tracked down, and no one was really questioned. It felt like they were moving her out of the situation instead of dealing with it.
Internal Struggle and Self-Doubt
For Tarran, the lack of resolution added another layer of confusion. She struggled to even name what was happening at the time, not knowing it was called a deepfake until her first year of university. At school, it was just a photo she had to deal with. The uncertainty fed into a deeper internal struggle. For a long time, she questioned whether she was somehow to blame. She still thought the best in everyone and was in denial that she was being bullied. She thought it was her fault or that she would get in trouble if she contacted the police. That self-doubt, she says, is one of the most damaging aspects of this kind of harassment. When you are being bullied, it becomes part of you, and you start to believe it even though you know it is not true.
Support and Recovery
Support from her parents and later a close circle of friends became critical in countering that narrative. They reminded her that not everyone hated her and that she was a good person. Professional support also proved pivotal. After her doctor recommended she see a psychologist, she began unpacking the constant state of alertness she had been living in. She was in such a defensive mode, used to having to defend herself at every turn. Even after finishing school, the effects lingered, and moving into university accommodation brought unexpected triggers as certain behaviours in others mirrored what she had experienced. She wondered why she was still panicking when it was over. It was not until she began speaking openly about her experience and hearing how others perceived it that the full weight of what she had endured became clear. Telling her university friends about what she went through was the first time she really realised how rough it had been.
Life Now and Future Aspirations
Now, with distance from those years, Tarran describes her life as completely different. She does not think her 17-year-old self could have imagined what her life looks like now. She is studying, teaching, playing sport, and reconnecting with passions she once abandoned, including music. After stepping away from guitar during high school out of fear of judgement, she recently won a competition, taking home a guitar signed by Ed Sheeran. In the coming months, she is set to travel to the United States to work at a summer camp, teaching guitar and other activities—a step that once would have felt unimaginable. She feels valued now, and her life is much more productive and exciting. Her experience has also reshaped her ambitions. After initially studying occupational therapy, she is now considering a future in education, driven by a desire to improve how schools respond to bullying. She believes there is a lot of change that can be made, and having gone through it, she can help make that change.
Do It For Dolly Day
Tarran is speaking out to highlight Do It For Dolly Day, Australia's national day of action to end bullying, now in its eighth year. She hopes other young Australians going through similar experiences will feel less alone and more hopeful about what comes next. She says it does get better, even if it does not feel like it at the time. She made it through bullying, but there are a lot of kids out there who do not. She knew about Dolly Everett's devastating story from the news and started looking into it when things were particularly difficult at her school. She found a lot of security in knowing that it was not her fault and she was not alone. She wants other children to know that reaching out for support made it a lot easier for her.
Dolly's Dream Foundation
Kate Everett co-founded Dolly's Dream to honour her daughter Dolly, who took her own life at the age of 14 in January 2018 after years of bullying. Eight years on, the love Australians have shown for Dolly and for their cause never ceases to move them. They are asking every Australian to go BLUE and help them reach $2 million for the very first time. Every single dollar goes straight to supporting the many thousands of kids and families impacted by bullying right now across Australia. They want them to know they are not alone. Sally Sweeney, Head of Dolly's Dream, added that bullying does not stop at the school gate—it follows young people via their phones into their bedrooms and into their sleep. That is why Do It For Dolly Day and the funds raised that week matter so much. If you or a young person you know is struggling with bullying, please call 13 DOLLY on 13 36 55 or use the webchat through the Dolly's Dream website. For kids and teens, it is there 24/7.
