PETALING JAYA, March 8 — She did the first thing any ordinary teenager would when in distress — tweet.

Maira Elizabeth Nari garnered international support and attention when Flight MH370 went missing last March as her father was the flight’s chief steward, Andrew Nari.

She also received words of support via the microblogging site from the Liverpool Fan Club as well as a football jersey signed by all the players.

“I did not expect people to respond to my tweets because usually people never really bothered about my tweets,” she said.

“When the incident happened, my first instinct was to tweet because I was so used to tweeting everyday about everything that happened in my life.”

She also said that as much as she was not disturbed when her phone went haywire, she was initially uncomfortable with the attention.

“It was hard. I had no privacy but if I had set my account to private, I would not have been able to communicate with those whom I did not follow on Twitter,” she said.

“I never thought that my Twitter account and I would make the headlines but I am now used to the attention and it does not bother me anymore.”

Maira was waiting for her SPM results when MH370 went missing and in the midst of it all, she managed to keep a positive and strong front.

“I’m not sure if I am actually strong or positive but when I wake up everyday, I look at my surroundings. I look at my mum and brother, and I tell myself that I need to be strong for them and I have to go through this difficult journey with them,” she said.

She said her brother, Malcolm, 14, was also taking the days one at a time.

“I also keep in mind what my dad wanted me to do — to pursue my studies — and my goal is to make my parents happy,” she said.

The 19-year-old, who is pursuing her Diploma in Mass Communication, said she was keeping her eye on the goal because it was her parents’ dream.

“It may sound silly but I want to fulfil their wishes because they did not go to university and have always wanted to have a graduation photo of me on the wall,” she said.

“My mum is my No. 1 motivator and it is my goal to achieve this for them, to make them happy, to make them proud.”

Maira reminisced about Andrew and how she used to love going on food hunts with him.

“Usually, when he came back after a long time and had taken a rest, I would bug him to go for meals and we would go looking for different types of food,” she said.

“It was one of the main things we did together.”

Just like any father, Maira said her father was overprotective.

“He would always ask me who my friends were and where I was going, especially if it was with a guy,” she said.

“You know how in school there are always high school dramas and stories? He was not interested in listening to those things.”

Maira added she was closer to her mother Melanie Antonio Inna, 46, but had slowly started letting her father into her life.

“I usually open up to my mum and tell her everything about my life and last year, I started opening up to him a little more, to which he had a lot of questions,” she said.

“Regardless of how protective a father he was, if he was around, I would definitely open up more to him. Even about the girly dramas.”