Hannah Anderson tells detractors to 'get a life'

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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

Aug. 22, 2013 4:39 PM PT

Hannah Anderson, the 16-year-old San Diego County girl whose kidnapping sparked a six-day, multistate manhunt, has faced off with her critics on social media, telling them to “mind their own business” and “get a life.”

In recent days, Hannah has posted messages on the “Prayers for Hannah Anderson” Facebook page, initially thanking supporters and saying the page “helped find me.” She has since turned her attention to those who have criticized her behavior, including her social media activity in the days after her rescue.

Hannah defended her social media presence in an interview with NBC News that aired on the “Today” show Thursday morning.

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

On the Facebook page, in response to questions about her “strange” way of mourning, Hannah wrote, “How bout you hop off and mind your own business? I can say and do what I want and I feel bad that it bothers you so much.”

Hannah told NBC that she was surprised by the negative reaction: “I didn’t know people could be so cruel.”

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

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 is set to air Thursday night on “NBC Nightly News.”

The teenager wiped away tears as she spoke of 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. She 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.”

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kate.mather@latimes.com

Twitter: @katemather