Cyberbullying blamed for Australian child model’s suicide
CANBERRA, Australia — A 14-year-old girl who was the angelic face of an iconic Australian bushmen’s hat brand was remembered by hundreds of mourners Friday after her suicide focused attention on the dangers of cyberbullying.
The memorial service for Amy “Dolly” Everett was held in the tiny Northern Territory town of Katherine near her family’s cattle ranch. Most mourners dressed in her favouritecolour, blue, and many had driven hundreds of kilometres (miles) from distant ranches.
A photograph of a young Dolly, her smiling face framed by sun-kissed curls and shaded by a rabbit-felt hat, has been featured in advertising of Akubra Hats since 2009, most recently this past Christmas.
More than a century old and one of Australia’s most iconic brands, Akubra has made so-called bush hats, the Australian military slouch hats and even the fedora worn by Harrison Ford’s character Indiana Jones in the 1981 movie “Raiders of the Lost Ark.”