Motivations	Why did you want to take part in the project?
Clara	I looked at the research and it looked like really interesting. Like a really interesting topic … that's basically the main reason I decided to kind of write why I would want to be a part of it.
Peter	I wanted to do it because it also looked like it would help. Childline is just a really big organization, so the fact that we were working with them meant it was going to be important and worthwhile.
Cassia	Because it was sort of improving a service which anyone could use. I hadn't really understood that it could be used for mental health. I thought it was more to do with abuse and stuff.

Research	What was the most memorable thing in the research process?
Clara	I think my favourite bit was when we went into detail about the threads and we looked at barriers and facilitators … like why people seek out help and [what] encourages them or discourages them to seek that help because there were some bits that I thought if I had just read this from this thread … then I wouldn't have picked up on these different aspects that could have helped or not helped the help seeker … and I thought it was really interesting 'cause you could see the effect once you kind of looked at it. You could see how this affected the help seeker and I thought that was one of the most interesting parts and it's one of the parts that stood out with need most. I thought the barriers and facilitators were really interesting and when we had to sort of pick apart like the things that they said and analyse them like that, I thought that was very interesting.
Peter	I thought it was pretty cool how we were able to kind of convert qualitative data into a spreadsheet of values. We did thematic analysis where we grouped … we came up with categories for common like threads through the messages. You tallied up in a spreadsheet how many times that [theme] came up … I never really thought about managing to convert kind of subjective things into more numerical data.
Cassia	I remember there was one thread where there were two … there was one help seeker and two helpers. A pair of supporters, I'm not sure. And you could see the difference in the styles that the help that the helpers were using. And it was things like … advice sometimes help, depending on how you phrased it. It was things like how quickly that people respond affects the help seeker and just all of these things. You could see it in the responses of the help seeker … and how that was affecting them and whether you could see the progress that the help seeker was making. And I found it really interesting because also the helpers could kind of reflect on what they had said, and then they would adapt their techniques, and that was just the progress and the adaptation that you could see was really, really interesting.

Involvement	Is there anything that stands out to you during that whole period of time that you were helping out with this research?
Clara	There were two things that are very different that I kind of thought of and one was just learning about ChildLine. It's like on the whole because in my head it had just been kind of oh 0800 1111. It makes sense that they have a website and they have all of these opportunities for people to seek help. I didn't realise quite how accessible that could be or how much it could help come and I didn't realise that there were all these resources, and to me that kind of helped me understand, so I would learn a little bit better and understand what it is [we are] actually trying to do and that it's not just a kind of phone helpline for people who are really, really struggling. But it can be so much more than that. And the other thing. This is more kind of in terms of research, but I think. I remember it being said that validation was one of the most important things to feel as a help seeker in the first stages of the help seeking model and that kind of … hit me because a lot of the people in the help seeking threads had kind of said what to me sounded like, really. They had described really horrible situations and then kind of said I don't know if this is normal or they were really questioning whether this was something to be upset about, and so it makes sense that validation was something that was quite important, but it really really hit me because it was quite emotive research.
Peter	It was interesting how the Childline people seemed to really take on board our suggestions and kind of ask us to critique … the message board service and come up with new things that it could do better.
Cassia	Well, I think something that stood out to me was uhm, in a good way. The amount of people who were willing to try and help other people and we're responding to other people's sort of comments in a really like mature and helpful way.

Lasting impact	Has the work that you did on the message boards inspired any of you in any way. You know almost a year on, and if so, how?
Clara	For me, I think maybe inspired is the wrong word, but it's got me thinking a lot more about kind of things that we've noticed in the research, especially about barriers and facilitators and it's got me kind of noticing. In kind of everyday life, what … could be detrimental to someone seeking help and just kind of little things, and I kind of come back to the research remembering. Kind of specific situations or not specific situations, but just remembering certain things that we noticed on the threads and it's just got me more aware. I think just in day‐to‐day life.
Peter	I didn't have anything particularly to add on top of that. I would just say. Agreeing with that, the main takeaway seems to be that there can be a lot going on, like behind the scenes. Which we wouldn't know about from just looking at somebody.
Cassia	Same as Clara, really the sort of issues that some people … that, I hadn't really known much about before. With like emotional abuse and neglect.