Hannah Anderson: Using social media 'just helps me grieve'

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Phillip Garrido enters a courtroom in Placerville, Calif. Phillip Garrido was sentenced to 431 years in prison for Jaycee Dugard’s abduction. (Rich Pedroncelli / Associated Press)

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A tent in the backyard of a home in Antioch, Calif., where authorities say kidnap victim Jaycee Lee Dugard lived. (Paul Sakuma / Associated Press)

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Elizabeth Smart addresses the media outside a federal courthouse following the guilty verdict in the Brian David Mitchell trail in Salt Lake City. Mitchell was found guilty in the June 5, 2002, kidnapping of Elizabeth Smart. (Colin E. Braley / Associated Press)

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Elizabeth Smart poses with her parents, Lois and Ed, outside their home in 2003. Smart was abducted from her Salt Lake City bedroom in 2002 (Tom Smart / Associated Press)

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Brian David Mitchell, Elizabeth Smart’s kidnapper, is escorted into the Frank E. Moss Federal Courthouse in Salt Lake City in 2010. (Jim Urquhart / Associated Press)

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Katie Beers, whose kidnapping attracted nationwide headlines in 1992, poses for a photo in Old Westbury, N.Y. The 30-year-old mother of two co-wrote a new book about her ordeal. (Frank Eltman / Associated Press)

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John Esposito sits handcuffed in a van in Hauppauge, N.Y., as he is about to be taken to court for arraignment on charges of kidnapping Katie Beers. (Michael Albans / Associated Press)

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Shawn Hornbeck, 15, watches as his parents Craig and Pam Akers talk to the media in Richwoods, Mo. Shawn, who was missing since Oct. 2002, was recovered in 2007 with another missing boy. (Tom Gannam / Associated Press)

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Michael Devlin is escorted out of the Franklin County Courthouse in Union, Mo. Devlin pleaded guilty in Franklin County to one charge of child kidnapping and one count of armed criminal action in the 2007 abduction of 13-year-old William “Ben” Ownby. (Tom Gannam / Associated Press)

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Steven Stayner, right, and and his brother Delbert Stayner walk toward their Merced County home as Steven was reunited with his family following a 7-year kidnap ordeal. (Ted Benson / Associated Press)

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Convicted kidnapper Kenneth Eugene Parnell during a court appearance in Oakland in 2003. Parnell was convicted in the kidnappings of Steven Stayner in 1972 and Timothy White in 1980. (Nick Lammers / Associated Press)

By Kate Mather and Samantha Schaefer

Aug. 22, 2013 6:17 AM PT

Hannah Anderson defended her use of social media in the days following her kidnapping and rescue, saying in her first interview after her rescue that sending and receiving the online postings “just helps me grieve.”

The San Diego County 16-year-old’s first comments about her ordeal came in an interview with NBC that aired in two parts Thursday morning on the “Today” show. In the second segment, she addressed those who have criticized her recent online activity.

“I didn’t know people could be so cruel,” she said.

She said social media outlets such as Facebook and Instagram -- where she has recently posted photos and comments -- helped her connect with friends and cope with what happened.

“It just helps me grieve, like, post pictures to show how I’m feeling,” she said. “I’m a teenager. I’m gonna go on it.”

She said the online messages she has received were “a little overwhelming” but that “it also felt good to know that people prayed for me.”

The multi-state search for Hannah began Aug. 4 after her mother and brother were found dead at family friend James DiMaggio’s burning property in eastern San Diego County. Authorities allege that DiMaggio killed Christina and Ethan Anderson before kidnapping Hannah and taking her to a remote stretch of Idaho wilderness.

After a group of horseback riders reported seeing the two near Morehead Lake, roughly 75 miles north of Boise, FBI agents raided the camp on Aug. 10. Hannah was rescued safely; DiMaggio was shot and killed.

Though officials have stressed that Hannah was a “victim in every sense of the word,” she has drawn scrutiny and criticism in the days following her rescue. When asked about some of the comments posted about her online, the teenager said, “They don’t really know the story, so they kind of have their own opinion on what they hear.”

“You are who you are, and you shouldn’t let people change that,” she said later. “You have your own opinion on yourself and other peoples’ opinion shouldn’t matter.”

She also spoke about her communications with DiMaggio, discussing phone calls and letters detailed in search warrants released last week. The documents indicated the two called each other about 13 times before their phones were shut off, and revealed that investigators found letters from Hannah at DiMaggio’s home -- both of which raised questions about their relationship.

Hannah said the calls were “just texts” to let DiMaggio know where to pick her up from cheer practice.

“The phone calls weren’t phone calls,” she said. “He didn’t know the address or where I was.”

The letters -- the contents of which authorities have not detailed -- were from a year ago, Hannah said, when she and her mother weren’t getting along.

“They weren’t anything bad,” she said. “They were just to help me through tough times.”

In the segments that aired Thursday, Hannah did not comment on the events leading to her abduction, the days she was missing or her rescue. Another excerpt was set to air Thursday night on “NBC Nightly News.

The teenager wiped away tears as she remembered her 8-year-old brother Ethan, saying he “had a really big heart.” Her mother, she said, was “strong-hearted and very tough” and “knew how to handle things.”

Hannah said she got her nails done in honor of her mother and brother, with pink and blue on her fingers and their names written across her toes. Hannah said her father’s trip to an Idaho hospital where she was initially taken “was helpful and it got us closer.”

She thanked those involved in her rescue -- authorities, her father and those behind the Amber Alert system -- and said if it weren’t for the horseback riders who spotted her in the Idaho back country and alerted police, “I probably wouldn’t be here right now.”

Later, Hannah said she first thought of herself as a victim, but now “I consider myself a survivor instead.”

“My mom raised me to be strong,” she said.

She also spoke of the upcoming school year, saying she hoped to make the varsity gymnastics team. She acknowledged school would likely “be a little overwhelming with everyone and their opinions,” but said her friends “have my back.”

“This was a hard time and there’s going to be harder times in life,” she said. “But if I can get through this, I’m sure I can get through a lot more.”

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Twitter: @katemather | Google+

Twitter: @Sam_Schaefer

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