User:Nathaniel Kok/sandbox

= Susannah Birch =

Susannah Birch is an Australian trauma survivor, activist, blogger, and social media personality. She was the survivor of an attack by her Mother at age two, and was catfished for 12 years from the age of 15.

Early Life, Family, and Education
Susannah was born in Adelaide, South Australia. Her family moved to Dalby, Queensland, when she was an infant, and later to Toowoomba, Queensland, where she still resides.

Susannah is divorced and has two daughters. She studied Journalism and Marketing. Susannah has worked in digital marketing since 2009, including building several digital projects of her own in the pregnancy and mental health niches.

Childhood Attack
In 1989, when Susannah was two years old, her throat was cut with a knife by her Mother during a psychotic episode. Susannah was rushed to the Dalby hospital where she had life saving surgery and a tracheostomy tube placed in her throat. She was then transferred to Queensland Children's Hospital. In 2000, Susannah had the tracheostomy tube removed, although she still has paralysed vocal cords.

Teen Catfishing
When Susannah was 15, she met a boy in a teen chatroom who claimed to be 17 years old. They dated online for three years, and continued talking platonically for a further nine years. In 2014, Susannah discovered the man’s true identity. She has never revealed his name, but during a 2015 episode of A Current Affair, he was revealed to be a 62-year-old University Teacher.

Media
In 2014, Susannah worked with journalist Amanda Gearing on a Radio Documentary about her childhood attack, which was later released on ABC Radio National and helped her story gain international attention.

In 2015, Susannah worked with A Current Affair to release a story about the man who catfished her for 12 years.

Her story has also been featured in other media outlets around the world, including Huffpost, The Australian, The Courier Mail, and Mamamia (website).

Upcoming Book & Film
Susannah has a book currently in writing which has been turned into a film script. In 2020, the film script came first in the AACTA International Award for Best Screenplay.