Behind all of the Instagram likes and Snapchat streaks is often a much more complicated teenager. Young rugby player Jed Melvin says the pressure of social media needs the outlet of trusted friends, family or school counsellors.

Jed Melvin squints into the sun, Orewa College rugby shirt stripped from his back and proudly held up to display the number 8. His teammates stand shoulder to shoulder, staking their claim to the muddy field.

The Facebook cover photo version of Jed is confident, athletic, a team player, at least 147 likes worth of popular. But the 17-year-old isn’t immune to the negative flipside of social media.

It “really puts the pressure on you,” he says. There’s the desire to appear “more than you are” online - and on top of that, the pressure to replicate that in real life.

I know that for me, following all the celebrities and everything, seeing what they do, you want to try to live up to that.

He counts himself as one of the lucky ones - he hasn’t experienced mental health issues, but he’s seen the toll it takes on his mates. “Guys are probably worse at [talking about] it,” he says. “There's that kind of macho stereotypes that guys if you’re struggling with something you have to do it on your own.

“When you’re with all your mates and stuff it’s not really the go-to thing to say: ‘Look, I’m struggling with anxiety’.” This is the Jed you don’t see in the cover photo: thoughtful, concerned, caring. That’s not to say a photo of him in his rugby strip is disingenuous - it’s not.

Footy is a massive part of his life. He’s been selected for the North Harbour Rugby Academy and has his sights set on making the North Harbour U19 team, then the Blues U20 and New Zealand U20 teams.

He trains four days a week, leading up to the “big game” on Saturdays. It’s the physical side he loves: “Body on body, just getting a hit in.”

But rugby isn’t the whole story. What you can’t tell from his Facebook photos is his passion for maths, physics and problem solving - the drive behind his plan to study engineering at University of Auckland next year.

Jed with children at a Bolivian orphanage where his parents worked. (SUPPLIED) Jed with children at a Bolivian orphanage where his parents worked. (SUPPLIED)

The engineering degree is part of a bigger plan to help communities in Bolivia. When he was in Year 6, he spent a year living there at an orphanage where his parents were working. The experience left a lasting impression.

He’s keen to give back closer to home, too. He’s hoping to become a youth worker next year at Orewa College - where he’s currently head boy - so he can help students struggling with mental health problems.

Mental health is the biggest issue facing his generation, he reckons. The constant scrutiny of life online isn’t the only pressure - the workload at school is full-on, he says, and getting into university is tough.