Shaina Coogan scans a Web site looking for sources on a story.

Several hours before she needed to pick up the phone, Lexi Sasanow already had knots in her stomach.

Sasanow was about to interview a 28-year-old veteran of the Iraq War, who had suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder after 23 of his friends were killed in the war zone.

Sasanow said she had little idea as to how to approach the man.

“I was scared I would say something that would trigger a bad memory,” Sasanow, of New York, said. “What if I upset him?”

Cherubs like Sasanow fight through anxiety over tough interviews and getting too emotionally tied to their subjects. But stories on topics such as cyber bullying and hospices, death and depression, force them to work through it all.

Alexandra Rudansky, of Larchmont, N.Y., said covering a story on cyber bullying was sad in itself but she was surprised by what she found. In her research, she found a man whose son – 13 years old at the time - committed suicide after cyber bullying.

“You just don’t hear about people dying of cyber bullying,” Rudansky said. “The kid was literally bullied to death.”

Shaina Coogan, of Cooper City, Fla., interviewed a woman whose son had died two years ago from the "choking game," in which people attain a temporary high by shutting off oxygen to their brain.

The topic was interesting, but morbid, Coogan said. She hesistated before calling her sources.

“What do I say? ‘I’m sorry?’ How do I communicate with them?” Coogan asked.

Cherubs who covered sensitive topics said they found it difficult to begin their interview because they didn’t know what to say. When interviewing people about death and dying, in particular, “an element of nervousness will always linger,” Rudansky said.

Sasanow had an introductory interview with her source to gather a basic facts and calleded back later with follow-up questions.

“I was hesitant to ask the tough questions,” Sasanow said. “But [the tension] really came from me, not him [my source]. He was really honest with me.”

After a few questions, interviews can be easier. Some cherubs said both they and their sources began to relax.

“The woman who I interviewed didn’t seem nervous,” Coogan said. “Her son died, and I’m pretty sure she’s used to talking about it.”

Cherubs found that many of their sources who had tragic stories to tell had already expressed their feelings before, either to friends, family or other media.

One source had done “countless interviews since his son died five years ago,” Rudansky said. “But both of us became choked up during the interview.”

After the interview, Rudansky said she called her mother to tell her about the interview.

“I cried,” Rudansky said. “You can’t hear things like that [the choking game] without feeling emotionally involved.”

Lily Altavena, of Scottsdale, Ariz., covered a story on the increasing number of elderly people who choose to live in hospices. Altavena’s grandmother had lived in a hospice for five months before she died a few years ago. She said she learned that a person can cover a topic close to their heart, as long as a conflict of interest does not exist.

“Just because you express and put things out there, doesn’t mean you have to include your emotions in it,” Altavena said.  “You can be passionate about the article and still be balanced. A little emotion is a good thing.”