Bully, Can't Change Me!
Thursday, December 20, 2012
Monday, December 17, 2012
Wednesday, December 12, 2012
Tuesday, December 11, 2012
They'll never break me (bullying) by Def Poetry Jam artist Lamont Carey
"They'll never break me"(bullying) by Def Poetry Jam artist Lamont Carey
Monday, December 10, 2012
Sunday, December 2, 2012
Bentley Green - Anti Bully Song - No More Pain
(10yr. old Rapper / Actor) Bentley Green uses his voice to let Bully's know that kids are not going to let them continue. Bentley wants kids to know that they are not alone and that they need to stay true to who they are.
This is a cover of Gym Class Heroes ft. Adam Levine "Stereo Hearts"
'Stereo Hearts' as originally by Gym Class Heroes ft. Adam Levine
Written by: Adam Levine, Brandon Lowery, ; Benjamin Levin, Travis Mccoy, Daniel Omelio, Ammar Malik
Published by: EMI Music Publishing & Universal Music Publishing
LYRICS are below
Catch Bentley Green at the following ::
http://BentleyGreen.com/
http://Twitter.com/BentleyGreen
http://www.Myspace.com/BentleyGreen
http://www.Facebook.com/BentleyGreenPage
http://www.ReverbNation.com/BentleyGreen
http://www.YouTube.com/BentleyGreen
NO MORE PAIN
So you wanna bully kids and you think its cool
What if somebody bigger wanted to bully you
You like to push kids and make em hit the ground
Would you like it if somebody made you fall down
I don't i don't i don't I don't think so
You should think before you act and probably slow ya roll
Cause..what..goes..around..comes..back
In other words I bet you probably wouldn't like that
Kids if you see a bully you should stand tall
Never fear them cause they just wanna be ya'll
Never give up work hard do your best
People hate when they insecure about they self
Keep standing tall keep doing you
Never quit don't worry bout what bully's do 2x
Sometimes you win sometimes you lose
Sometimes you fall keep standing tall 2x
No more pain no more fear
I cant lose its my year
Anti-Bully Blog's Quote of the Day
"Use your smile to change the world. Don't let the world change your smile."
5 Bullying Prevention Tips for Principals
Post antibullying signs
In order to set the tone for a diverse and accepting school culture, you might consider posting diversity or bullying prevention signs around campus. This will remind students, parents, visitors and administration that bullying is not tolerated. You can order signage online for relatively cheap, or to encourage buy-in, you might even hold a school-wide contest where students submit their own custom designs and messages.
Invite diverse guest speakers
Most state standards require that students study ancient culture and civilization. Books are useful learning tools, but they have limitations, especially if we want to make content come alive for our students. Here’s an idea: Say that you are studying Eastern civilizations. Why not invite a Buddhist monk from a local temple to give a presentation on Buddhism? You could apply this to any culture or religion, really. Guest speakers not only give tangible life to the material students have been studying in their textbooks, they also bolster the fact that your school is open and accepting of all cultures.
Partner with a local college or university
Most university counseling programs require students to take a practicum, usually a semester-long supervised “course” where students put everything they’ve learned from the program into practice. Odds are that you already have a counselor on staff (at least part time), but why not take advantage of the extra help from university interns? Not only will they be earning credit hours towards graduation—which means that you won’t have to dip into your budget—they’ll also be lightening your current counselor’s work load.
With the extra help on hand, you’ll have the resources you need to conduct team meetings with parents, students and teachers; you’ll also have more resources to help monitor lunch. Intern counselors can also organize bullying prevention activities: Say, for example, that one student has misbehaved or bullied another student. The offending student could have lunch with one of the interning counselors to discuss what happened and what the student could have done differently. In addition to this, the student and counselor could collaborate to come up with an appropriate way to remedy the behavior: writing the other student a letter, for example, or drawing him or her a picture.
Start Lunch Clubs
Another way to encourage diversity and positive friendships is to break students out of their routine and get them interacting with students outside of their inner circle. Try putting together a few different supervised activities during lunch: Mondays could be devoted to a movie in one room and karaoke in the other. Tuesdays could be devoted to dance in one room and music-making (with various instruments) in the other, etc. These activities could be facilitated by volunteer teachers or interning counselors.
Collaborate with Parents
Having the support of parents is essential to creating a positive school culture. In addition to encouraging parents to form bullying prevention committees, what if you were to conduct home visits like Larry Ferlazzo has done at his Sacremento, California high school? If that sounds unrealistic, consider the fact that Ferlazzo’s school, Luther Burbank, has over 2,000 students. In spite of this, he and his staff continue to make hundreds of visits to the homes of incoming freshman (as well as older students) who have not successfully passed the high school exit exam. Ferlazzo and his team focus on academic success, but there’s no reason that you couldn’t talk to parents about school culture, diversity and bullying at the same time.
Friday, November 30, 2012
You Can Be The Difference
Anti-Bully Blog's Quote of the Day
"Make your anger so expensive that no one can afford it and make your happiness so cheap that people can get it for free."
BULLYING PREVENTION TIPS FOR KIDS
If You Are Being Harassed
- Talk to your parents or an adult you can trust, such as a teacher, school counselor, or principal. If the first adult you approach is not receptive, find another adult who will support and help you. There is someone who you can trust.
- It's not useful to blame yourself for a bully's actions. If bullies know they are getting to you, they are likely to torment you more. If at all possible, stay calm, say nothing and walk away. Act confident. Hold your head up, stand up straight, make eye contact, and walk confidently. A bully will be less likely to single you out if your project self-confidence.
- Try to make friends with other students. A bully is more likely to leave you alone if you are with your friends. This is especially true if you and your friends stick up for each other.
- Avoid situations where bullying can happen. If at all possible, avoid being alone with bullies. Be with someone when you walk home or use the restroom.
- Do not resort to violence or carry a gun or other weapon. Carrying a gun will not make you safer.
If Someone Else is Being Harassed
- Refuse to join in if you see someone being bullied.
- If you can do so without risk to your own safety, get a teacher, parent, or other responsible adult to come help immediately.
- Speak up and/or offer support to bullied teens when you witness bullying. If you feel you cannot do this at the time, privately support those being hurt with words of kindness or condolence later. Encourage them to tell someone.
- Always report harassment, even if it is anonymously.
About Cyber-Harassment
Victims of cyber-harassment can be reached anytime and anyplace and often they do not know the perpetrator. Damage done by cyberbullies is equal to other forms of harassment. Some protective tips are:
- Make your user name and online profile anonymous.
- Don't open or read mail by cyberbullies.
- Don't erase messages and show them to an adult you trust.
- If you are threatened with harm, ask and adult to help you call the police.
Thursday, November 29, 2012
8 Anti-Bullying Tips for Students
Anti-Bullying Tip #1: Be an upstander, not a bystander.
- Bystanders walk by and ignore a situation; upstanders pay attention and, if needed, step up to help.
Anti-Bullying Tip #2: Be brave enough to not worry about what people are going to say or think about you.
- Interrupting a moment of bullying takes courage; don’t let fear of what others might say or think about you stop you from doing the right thing.
Anti-Bullying Tip #3: Think about the bigger picture of what it means for the victim and those around you.
- When you step up for and defend someone, you not only protect the person being victimized, you also send a message about how people are treated around you, letting others know that this kind of treatment is not okay.
Anti-Bullying Tip #4: Consider what it would feel like if someone defended you.
- If you see someone getting bullied, think about what it would feel like if that were you. Then think about what it would feel like if someone stepped up for you in that moment.
Anti-Bullying Tip #5: You have the right to stop it.
- You have the right to step in and stop bullying MORE than a bully has the right to intimidate, hurt and scare another person.
Anti-Bullying Tip #6: Don’t put yourself in a dangerous position, and don’t ignore the situation.
- Do not be afraid to go get an adult or someone else nearby to help if it feels like you can’t handle it on your own.
Anti-Bullying Tip #7: If it feels wrong, it probably is.
- If whatever you are witnessing makes you feel uneasy, uncomfortable or bad, it’s probably because whatever’s going on is not okay. Trust your gut instincts.
Anti-Bullying Tip #8: When in doubt, be nice.
- It’s as simple as that. Do the nice thing whenever possible.
Anti-Bully Blog's Quote of the Day
"Ignore the people who talk about you behind your back. That's exactly where they belong, behind your back."
Anti-Bully Blog's Quote of the Day
"Make your anger so expensive that no one can afford it and make your happiness so cheap that people can get it for free."
Wednesday, November 28, 2012
Spoken Word Artist Se7en @ Anti-Bullying Rally Performing She Was So Beautiful
"She Was So Beautiful"
How to Stop Bullying on Facebook
Bullying can happen anywhere people congregate and lose their sense of courtesy and boundaries. Facebook is no different given its networking purpose; indeed, bullying on Facebook can cause even more distress and fear than being bullied in real life because the bullying enters your home sanctuary as well, extending both the extent and time frame of bullying.
If you're a victim of bullying on Facebook or you've witnessed it happening, here are some suggestions for stopping the bullying in its tracks.
Make your Facebook account as bully-proof as possible. Be sure to make your settings safe by only letting your known friends see your account and interact with you. If something happens in real life that you think could spill over onto Facebook, consider taking pre-emptive action to remove the problem person before they can try anything. For example, if someone you know from school or work who bullies you there asks you to be their friend, deny the friend request. If they ask you about it in real life, be polite and say that you don't have the time for more than 20 friends and family members and that all the spaces are already filled.
Spot bullying tactics. Bullying can come across in different ways to different people and online it is not always easy to detect a person's real meaning and sometimes you'll need to assess whether or not you're reading too much into something. But some things that might denote bullying on Facebook include:
- Wall posts that say intimidating, mean-spirited, or outright nasty things about you, your friends, and the things you care about. For example: "Marcia, May and me all hate you. You've got really bad breath. Don't bother coming to school tomorrow."
- Consistent abuse about the things you've posted. For example: "Why do you post such STUPID things???? You're a waste of space!!!!"
- Use of lots of punctuation, such as WTF?!!! on a consistent basis, intended to ram home a message without any subtlety.
- Use of ALL CAPITALS can denote a menacing attitude. Online etiquette views most usage of ALL CAPITALS as the equivalent of shouting and if the message is accompanied by negative words or implications, it might be an attempt to bully you.
- Posting photos or videos of you online that are unflattering, that show bullying of you that's happened in real life (for example, phone shots of people roughing you up), or tagging you in photos that suggest negative things.
- They use threatening, harassing, or nasty language in Facebook chat.
- They start a Facebook group based on you, such as something like "10 Reasons to Hate Hermione B".
Look for a pattern. Be sure that the bullying commentary is not just a one-off stupid, petty or insulting comment that was added thoughtlessly. If there is a pattern of leaving nasty messages on your wall, it's obvious that the person doesn't intend to stop. Also consider how this person behaves toward you in real life if you know them in your daily life. Is this something they're carrying over from their everyday behavior?
- Be aware that it's possible for one thing to be enough to establish harassing behavior, such as threatening you, or adding compromising photos of you with suggestive comments, etc.
Tell the bully to stop. Initially, it might be enough to ask the person to stop bothering you. Message them quietly at first. If they keep it up, leave a public request; knowing that your other friends can read it might shame them into ceasing.
- If the bully is someone known to you in a professional capacity, remind them of their need to remain professional in the online sphere. You might do well to remind them that your wall is read by many people too and that other people's perception of them is likely to change if they read anymore of the harassing comments.
Talk to your trusted friends about what is happening. They may be able to leave messages asking the bully to stop as well, and to make it obvious in public that the bully's behavior is unwanted and not tolerated.
- If you're a teen, talk to your parents. Your parents can contact the relevant parents or school and discuss what is happening. They can also consider legal action if the bullying does not cease.
Don't stoop to play their game. You might feel safer responding in kind from the relative "safety" of your computer, but this will only increase the problem, and could result in flame wars and real life confrontation. Ignore their attempts to lure you into responding and block them from being your Facebook friend. Ignoring is usually the best means for deflating a bully's satisfaction.
Report them. There's no need to pussyfoot around if you've been nice and things didn't stop. Report the bullying behavior, activities, and the bully to Facebook administrators. Outline the facts and the impact that the bullying is having on you and request that action be taken, including removal of any bullying posts, groups, or other public elements. Parents can report on behalf of teens; for more information, see Facebook's own instructions at http://www.facebook.com/help/?safety=parents.
- If you have a guidance counselor at school, college, or your workplace, you might consider going to them for help. Ask them for the school, institution, or company policy on bullying and harassment to see whether Facebook is covered. Even if it's not, the substance of the bullying itself should be the subject of an anti-bullying or anti-harassment policy. Find out what you can do to get help and support, and to get the bullying to stop.
- If you're unhappy with the response of a counselor or other person, or of Facebook, consider talking to someone in your local police station for further advice. They may be able to help you directly, or to send you to someone else who can help.
- The police should be involved if you have received physical threats, racial taunts, or if photos or videos of you being mistreated, demeaned, or showing nudity are involved.
Close your Facebook account. If you're really unhappy using the Facebook account and things feel out of control, or you feel over-exposed, consider deleting your Facebook account. You can always open a new account when you're feeling stronger or when you're older.
- Another way to cope may be to open a new Facebook account using a different name, such as your first and middle name. You may need to talk to Facebook administrators about opening an account with a "non-real" name but if bullying is the issue, then you have good grounds for being exempted from the usual name policy.
Don't participate in Facebook bullying yourself. Put a stop to cyber-bullying via Facebook by pointing out when it's wrong and reminding those who participate in it how it harms others, including to the point where some teenagers have killed themselves as a result of bullying in the online environment.
Be prepared to wait for Facebook to erase the bullying groups/pages. You will be probably be waiting a LONG time. It is unfortunate that Facebook does not take their own abuse policy seriously.
Tuesday, November 27, 2012
No, It's Not Ok Original By Amber Blu
NO TO BULLYING!!!!! I wrote this song for anyone who's ever been bullied or talked about in a negative way. I was inspired to write this because I can relate to this song like many young kids pre-teens and teens. "NO It's NOT OKAY!!!
Anti-Bully Blog's Quote of the Day
“Like all bullies, they’re cowards underneath the swagger" -Robert Pattinson
10 GOOD WAYS TO TEACH KIDS TO DEAL WITH INSULTS
Kids can be cruel. Name-calling, jokes and teasing are all weapons of choice in the arsenals used in the playground war of words. If your child is the target of insults, you may both rest assured that he is not alone, and it’s more than likely nothing personal. To help him deal with the insults, consider the following 10 ideas:
1. One of the most controversial ways to deal with insults is to give them back. Having a snappy comeback at the ready can often stop teasing in its tracks. Kids often size one another up with teasing; when you have a witty response, the teaser will often back down.
2. If it’s not your child’s nature to give and take insults, another option would be to return kindness for insults. It can be disarming, and leave the other kid feeling kind of crummy. Insults are often used to elicit a certain response from the intended victim. Taking the high road also takes the sport out of the tease for the kid doing the teasing.
3. If possible, your child could avoid the kids that are insulting her. Taunting and put-downs aren’t everyone’s cup of tea, and when they’re especially cruel they aren’t fun for anyone. In those circumstances, the best course of action is to find a group of friends who aren’t so mean.
4. Ignoring the insults is always an option. More often than not, the insults are intended to get attention, usually at someone else’s expense. Nothing defuses a caustic insult quite like letting it go unnoticed.
5. Your child might learn to take the insults less personally if he has the chance to see the situation from a different perspective. It might be fun to watch a comedy where that kind of humor is being used. When your kid sees that it’s just harmless entertainment, he might be less inclined to take insults to heart.
6. Share your own childhood experience about the subject. Tell your kid how you dealt with it, and talk about how it felt to be teased. Knowing you’ve been through the same thing may help her not to feel alone and encourage her to talk about her feelings.
7. Explain to your child that some kids who tell insults are behaving that way because someone else has been mean to them, or because they just don’t know of any better ways to associate with others. Teach her to have compassion for those who can’t express themselves in a more positive and friendly way.
8. If a kid is being overly aggressive, hurtful, or using insults that are of a racial or otherwise insensitive or prejudicial nature, your child should know who to contact should that happen at school. In any case, he needs to know that he can go to you or another adult for help.
9. If the insults are being sent online, your child should know how to avoid websites where the behavior occurs, how to delete or block offending parties, and to advise you if any contact online is causing distress or discomfort.
10. It is always a good idea to have regular discussions with your child about her relationships at school. Doing so can help her to work out any difficulties she’s having. It may require contacting school authorities or speaking directly with the other child’s parents to alleviate the problem.
Article Source: http://www.nannyjobs.org/blog/10-good-ways-to-teach-kids-to-deal-with-insults/http://www.nannyjobs.org/blog/10-good-ways-to-teach-kids-to-deal-with-insults/
Monday, November 26, 2012
Five Tips for Talking to Kids About Bullying
1. Clearly define bullying behaviors. Understand and explain to your child that bullying is a form of violence. Bullying is a way for an individual or group of people to try to have control over someone else. While there are varying degrees, all bullying is physical, verbal, or emotional abuse. Bullying can take many forms including: name-calling, teasing, playing mean jokes, excluding from the group, threatening, telling ugly rumors, taking away personal belongings, cyber bullying, pushing, and hitting.
2. Ask open-ended question to spark conversation. How many times have you asked your child how her day at school went only to receive a terse "fine" or "lousy" and never really learned what happened during her day?
Many times when talking to a child, parents tend to do all or most of the talking. To encourage two-sided conversations, avoid posing questions that can be answered with a simple yes or no. Instead, try to ask your child open-ended questions that get him or her communicating with you. For example, ask questions like "What was the best part of your day today?" and "What was your least favorite part of the day?" Those responses will help open the discussion about your child's experiences, pressures, and feelings, and pave the way for deeper talks about issues such as bullying.
3. Know your child. Also, know what he does in his social life and the friends with whom he spends his time. That doesn't mean snoop through his personal belongings and stalk your child. Simply spend time with him and pay attention when he does share. Don't just hear him talk. Kids sometimes keep bad feelings or run-ins to themselves or only share the less embarrassing parts of the story with parents, so really listen to what your child tells you through his words, behaviors, and body language. Kids unknowingly send off signals that may clue you in to whether or not your child is being bullied or may, in fact, be bullying other kids.
4. Be honest and approachable. Be open with your child about your own past experiences and how you dealt with them. She may not choose to deal with issues in the same way as you, but knowing you can relate will make her feel more comfortable to share her own struggles. Even if you have few stories to share, remind her often that she can come to you about anything. And mean it!
True communication between you and your child also means allowing your child the freedom to voice his or her opinions and experiences. You don't have to like everything you hear. Chances are that you won't, but keep your own feelings and frustrations in check. Don't jump to conclusions, resort to name-calling, or act on your impulse to bully the bully. All you will accomplish with those types of reactions is to teach your child not to come to you the next time there's a problem.
5. Teach by example. This one may not be very popular, but it needs to be said. You can talk to your child about the wrongness and injustice of bullying until your face turns blue, but if you don't set that example in your own life, you send mixed signals to your child. Worse yet, you may be teaching your child how to be a bully or to allow himself to be bullied. Your actions will stick with your child far longer than your words. The most effective way to "talk" to your child about bullying involves much less talking and a lot more action. Lead by example.
Kids learn many of their bad behaviors and habits from watching their parents and following their examples. If your child experiences bullying from you firsthand, sees you acting like a bully to others, or watches you allowing others to bully you, that is what your child learns as acceptable behavior. Pay attention to how you talk to your child and others when he's around, how you allow others to talk to your child and you, and how you deal with your own emotions and frustrations. Your child is watching, listening, and learning.
Heartbeat by Jason G. Ridge (Official Anti-Bullying Charity Single)
Buy the single here: http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/jasongridge
*Part of the proceeds will be donated to Kids Help Phone (Canada)
Watch our Anti-Bullying PSA: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0exyV9k-AoA
Watch our BTS video from the studio: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CA3MYVf9ZFc
Rachel Crow - Mean Girls
Music video by Rachel Crow performing Mean Girls. (C) 2012 Simco Ltd. under exclusive license to Columbia Records, a division of Sony Music Entertainment
iTunes: http://smarturl.it/RachelCrowEP
Amazon: http://smarturl.it/rachelcrowepamazon
Five Tips For Dealing with Cyberbullies
1. Don't respond. Don't retaliate. Tell a trusted adult.
2. Save all evidence. Never delete any communications. Be sure to keep electronic copies and print-outs in case things escalate. Keep records of ISP and law enforcement contacts. Do not alter the electronic communications.
3. If the person who is harassing you continues this behavior, contact their Internet Service Provider (ISP).
4. Save all information that contains even a hint of a threat and contact law enforcement/
5.Block the harasser after you have made copies of all communication.
Anti-Bullying 2012 We're better without bullying
INFORMATION, LINKS and NUMBERS
Beat Bullying
http://www.beatbullying.org/
0845 338 5060
Cyber bullying
http://www.bullying.co.uk/
Samaritans
http://www.samaritans.org/
UK: 08457 90 90 90
ROI: 1850 60 90 90
jo@samaritans.org
Samaritans helpline
0117 983 1000
LGBT support in south west
www.intercomtrust.org.uk
0800 612 3010
helpline@intercomtrust.org.uk
Bullying advice for kids
http://www.kidscape.org.uk/
For free, confidential advice on employment relations problems including bullying,
Monday--Friday, 08:00--20:00 Saturday, 09:00--13:00 tel 08457 47 47 47;
http://www.acas.org.uk/index.aspx?articleid=1410
Apparently best Australian help site for kids
http://www.kidshelp.com.au/
Bullying in the Workplace
http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Employment/ResolvingWorkplaceDisputes/Discriminat...
For emotional support
www.supportline.org.uk
Scottish Anti-Bullying Network
www.antibullying.net
Anti-Bullying Alliance
www.anti-bullyingalliance.org.uk
Childline
www.childline.org.uk
08001111
http://diana-award.org.uk/
All adsense money earned from this video will go towards the Princess Diana Trust: http://diana-award.org.uk/anti-bullying
Thanks to: PointlessBlog, LukeIsNotSexy, hummuswehaveaproblem, TheOliWhiteTV, 3sixty5days, Cherry, Blade376, RayRobertsFilms, doddleoddle, JDandmilk, AbsoluteTwoddle, BertiebertG, musicalbethan, adeanaday, FoodForLouis and Ciaran.
Anti-Bully Blog's Quote of the Day
"I allowed myself to be bullied because I was scared and didn't know how to defend myself. I was bullied until I prevented a new student from being bullied. By standing up for him, I learned to stand up for myself." - Jackie Chan
5 Powerful Tips to Share with your Children to Stop Bullying
Teach your children:
1. Bullying is not OK. Bullying is not genetic, in other words you are not born with it in your DNA. Bullying is not relative to race, culture, or gender, and is a behavior usually taught by someone you love or trust. Bullying is not a right of passage, and is not tolerable under any circumstances.
2. Stop. Walk away. Do not participate if a friend or group of friends are bullying another student. When you’re feeling angry and mean, think about what you’re doing and stop. Take a deep breath, and count to three.
3. Be a friend. Offer yourself as a friend to a student who is being bullied with a smile or kind word. Everybody is special and unique. Find out what makes the student being bullied special.
4. Be brave. If you are very brave, and feel safe, you can tell the bully to stop. You have that right.
5. Ask for help. Go to a trusted adult if you see another student being bullied.
Teach your children that they are powerful beings, and to use their power to respond to bullying in a positive way.
An All too Familiar Story
A anti-bullying PSA brought to you by the COM 381 students at the University of Rhode Island. Stand up to bullying because bullies leave us empty. Think BLUE, we do! Follow us on twitter @URI_goes_BLUE
Saturday, November 10, 2012
Anti Bullying Song By Leah 14 Year Old Girl- Dedicated to Amanda Todd
This song was inspired by Amanda Todd and it is for all of the victims of bullying. It is at first sung from the victims view and how they feel and then near the close of the song it asks the bully how they feel now that they have completely destroyed someone. PLEASE STOP BULLYING!!!! Here's the lyrics: Lonley, Lonely
(Chorus)
How would you feel if you were the one everybody hated
How would you feel if you were the one who thought their life was wasted
How would you feel, How would you feel oh oh
How would you feel, How would you feel oh oh
Lonely,Lonely
(Verse#1)
She walks around all by herself
Desperately waiting for someone's help
Feeling pointless, Feeling dead
Wanting to run and never look back
Lonely, Lonely
How would you feel if you were the one everybody hated
How would you feel if you were the one who thought their life was wasted
How would you feel, How would you feel oh oh
How would you feel, How would you feel oh oh
Lonely, Lonely
She comes home tears run down her face
Wants to get out of this painful place
Betrayed and broken she makes her plan
She hopes her loved ones will understand
Full of pills and full of pain
Takes a last look at this empty place
Lonely, Lonely
How do you feel now that you've killed a tortured child
How do you feel now that you've knocked someone who's already down
How do you feel feel oh oh
How do you feel feel oh oh
Lonely, Lonely, Lonely,.......Lonely
Thursday, November 1, 2012
20 Top Tips for Parents If Your Child Is Being Bullied
Bullying effects so many families, and for many parents this can mean a frustrating and painful time to help their child get through this. Below is just a quick list of things you can do to help your child, remember that what works with one child may not work with another, so here are 20 things to try:
20 Tips for Parents:
1- Encourage your child to report any bullying incidents to you.
2- Validate your child's feelings. It is normal for your child to feel hurt, sad, and angry.
3- Ask your child how he/she has tried to stop the bullying. Asking questions is a wonderful way to have your child do the thinking.
4- Ask how is he/she going to solve this. We want the child to do the thinking before we jump in. See how many options he can come up with.
5- Coach your child in alternatives. Ideally the best solution is having your child solve this without anyone interfering. Most of the time unfortunately, this isn't possible. Share these strategies: avoidance is often an excellent strategy, playing in a different place, play a different game, stay near a supervisor, look for new friends, join social activities outside of school.
6- Talk with your child's teacher. Make sure they are aware of what is going on.
7- Encourage your child to seek help from other school personnel.
8- Volunteer to help supervise activities at school.
9- Do not ignore your child's reports. Ignoring them sends the wrong message.
10- Do not confront the bully or the bullies' family.
11- Teach your child how to defend him or herself.
12- Teach self-respect.
13- Give numerous positive comments to your child.
14- Avoid labeling or name-calling.
15- Let your child know it is okay to express their anger. There are positive and negative ways to express anger, we want to teach and model the positive ways.
16- Let your children stand up to you now and then. It makes it more likely they will stand up to a bully.
17- Stress the importance of body language.
18- Teach your child to use 'I' statements.
19- Teach positive self-talk
20- Teach how to use humor, 'out crazy' them. For example, if the bully says to Keith, "Hey, boy you're ugly." Keith can respond in a couple different ways:
"Thanks for sharing"
"Yes, I know, I always have been"
"Yes, today's lunch was disgusting" then walk away.
There is many other aspects of bullying to look at: Why your child is the victim, why people bully, what you child can do if he/she is bullied, signs your child is being bullied, what the schools should be doing, handling the school bus issues. All of these are addressed in The Shameful Epidemic, How to protect your child from bullies and school violence.
Taken from article by by Derek and Gail Randel M.D
Anti-Bully Blog's Quote Of The Day
"You will spend your lives trying to figure out how to keep others down because it makes you feel more important. There is a big world out there bigger than prom, bigger than high school. It won't matter if you were the prom queen or the quarterback of the football team or the biggest nerd in the school. Find out who you are and try not to be afraid of it." -Drew Barrymore
Wednesday, October 31, 2012
Queen Creek High School Football Players Protect Chy Johnson, Bullied Student With Special Needs (VIDEO)
Players including the star quarterback have rallied behind Chy Johnson, a 16-year-old special needs student who was tormented by kids at school, reports 3TV News and azfamily.com.
The players now eat with her at lunch and watch her back.
Johnson's daily life was far different before. She came home crying every day and the bullies "threw trash at me," she said in the interview.
Chy's mother, Elizabeth Johnson, contacted Carson Jones, the popular starting quarterback, for help. She reached out to the right guy. According to Fox Sports Arizona, Jones is not only a leader of the Phoenix-area school's undefeated football team, but is a straight-A student who's active in his church and in charity work.
All Chy's mom wanted was a name or two of those responsible. Instead, Jones went the extra yard, joining Chy at lunch with other teammates. They keep an eye on her the rest of the school day, too. Varsity players Tucker Workman and Colton Moore also spearhead the effort.
"They're not bullying her anymore because they've seen her with us or something," Jones said.
The players now eat with her at lunch and watch her back.
Johnson's daily life was far different before. She came home crying every day and the bullies "threw trash at me," she said in the interview.
Chy's mother, Elizabeth Johnson, contacted Carson Jones, the popular starting quarterback, for help. She reached out to the right guy. According to Fox Sports Arizona, Jones is not only a leader of the Phoenix-area school's undefeated football team, but is a straight-A student who's active in his church and in charity work.
All Chy's mom wanted was a name or two of those responsible. Instead, Jones went the extra yard, joining Chy at lunch with other teammates. They keep an eye on her the rest of the school day, too. Varsity players Tucker Workman and Colton Moore also spearhead the effort.
"They're not bullying her anymore because they've seen her with us or something," Jones said.
Sunday, October 28, 2012
Anti-Bully Blog's Quote of the Day
"I was bullied every second of every day in elementary and middle school...Obviously, people are going to bring you down because of your drive. But, ultimately, it makes you a stronger person to turn your cheek and go the other way." Selena Gomez
Warning signs that a child or teen is being bullied
If a child is being bullied it may not be obvious to a parent or teacher. Most bullying occurs away from adults, when kids are alone in hallways or on the way home from school, for example. Bullies tend to be adept at hiding their behavior from adults and bullying victims will often cover up evidence because of a sense of shame at being victimized. Kids are also reluctant to tell their parents about being cyberbullied out of fear they’ll lose their computer or cell phone privileges.
Tips for dealing with bullying and cyber-bullying
Tips for dealing with bullying and cyber-bullying
There is no single solution to bullying and cyber-bullying. It may take some experimenting with a variety of different responses to find the strategy that works best for your situation. To defeat a bully, you need to retain your self-control and preserve your sense of self.
Tip #1: Respond as bullying is happening
Walk away. Bullies want to know they have control over your emotions so don’t react with anger or retaliate with physical force. If you walk away, ignore them, or calmly and assertively tell them you’re not interested in what they have to say, you’re demonstrating that they don’t have control over you.
Protect yourself. If you can’t walk away and are being physically hurt, protect yourself so you can get away. Your safety is the first priority.
Report the bullying to a trusted adult. If you don’t report threats and assaults, a bully will often become more and more aggressive. In many cases adults can find ways to help with the problem without letting the bully know it was you who reported them.
Repeat as necessary. Like the bully, you may have to be relentless. Report each and every bullying incident until it stops. There is no reason for you to ever put up with bullying.
Tip #2: Handle a cyber-bully
Do not respond to cyber-bullying messages. The bully wants to feel in control of your emotions, so the best response is no response.
Document cyber-bullying. Save and print out emails, text messages, or screenshots.
Block the cyber-bully on your phone, IM list, websites, or social media pages. Report inappropriate messages to an Internet service provider or website moderator; report threats to the police.
Tip #3: Reframe the problem of bullying or cyber-bullying
By changing your attitude towards bullying you can help regain a sense of control.
Try to view bullying from a different perspective. The bully is an unhappy, frustrated person who wants to have control over your feelings so that you feel as badly as they do. Don’t give them the satisfaction.
Look at the big picture. Bullying can be extremely painful, but try asking yourself how important it will seem to you in the long run. Will it matter in a year? Is it worth getting so upset over? If the answer is no, focus your time and energy elsewhere.
Focus on the positive. Reflect on all the things you appreciate in your life, including your own positive qualities and gifts. Make a list and refer to it whenever you feel down.
Find the humor. If you’re relaxed enough to recognize the absurdity of a bullying situation, and to comment on it with humor, you’ll likely no longer be an interesting target for a bully.
Don’t try to control the uncontrollable. Many things in life are beyond our control—including the behavior of other people. Rather than stressing, focus on the things you can control such as the way you choose to react to bullies.
Tip #4: Avoid isolation
Having trusted people you can turn to for encouragement and support will boost your resilience when being bullied. Reach out to connect with family and real friends (those who don’t participate in bullying) or explore ways of making new friends. There are plenty of people who will love and appreciate you for who you are.
Find others who share your same values and interests. You may be able to make friends at a youth group, book club, or religious organization. Learn a new sport, join a team, or take up a new hobby such as chess, art, or music.
Share your feelings. Talk to a parent, counselor, coach, religious leader, or trusted friend. Expressing what you’re going through can make a huge difference to the way you feel, even if it doesn’t change the situation.
Boost your confidence. Exercise is a great way to help you feel good about yourself, as well as reduce stress. Punch a mattress or take a kick boxing class to work off your anger.
Don’t beat yourself up. Don’t make a bullying incident worse by dwelling on it or replaying it over and over in your head. Instead, focus on positive experiences you’ve had.
How can we prevent Cyber Bullying?
Parents
Communicate with your children about their online experiences.
Parents need to discuss cyber bullying with their children as part of their regular discussions about Internet Safety and appropriate use of technologies. Parents can make it clear that using the Internet or cellular phones to embarrass or hurt others’ feelings is not part of their family values. Discussing the golden rule as it applies to internet and technology use can be very helpful. Parents should discuss bystander behavior as well, encouraging children to speak out against cyber bullying they witness and to report it to the appropriate person. In addition, parents need to set up guidelines for appropriate use for each new piece of technology that is brought into the home.
Educators
Teach Students Online “Netiquette”, Safe Blogging, and How to Monitor Their Online Reputation.
Online netiquette skills are becoming vital as technology is increasingly being incorporated into most career paths. Many schools encourage teachers to keep blogs where class and homework assignments are posted for students to review. Students are asked to post assignments online. Providing tips on appropriate posting and online etiquette as part of incorporating more technology in the classroom is critical. In addition schools need clear policies against bullying and cyber bullying, and bullying prevention programs in their schools.
Students
Become a courageous bystander!
Don’t engage in or support mean material, gossip, or rumors posted online, or talk about it at school.
Support a classmate being targeted online by posting positive messages!
If you know the person being targeted, invite him/her to spend time with you.
Tell an adult at home and at school.
Print the evidence to share with an adult.
Confront the student who is cyber bullying if it is safe, and make it clear that you think their behavior is wrong.
Remember that we are not invisible online, and anything we post can be traced back to us. Monitor your online reputation.
Thursday, October 25, 2012
Anti-bully Blog's Quote of the day
Stand Against Bullying. Don't Be a Bystander
Stand Against Bullying. Don't Be A Bystander.
We are the Cadets of the Robert Land Academy, an all-boys military school. We have taken a stand against bullying and hope you will too. We have signed a pledge that we will not bully and we will not be bystanders when we see bullying occur.
Bullying can be stopped when someone intervenes. After watching this video, we ask that you too take a stand against bullying by signing our online petition at www.NoBystanders.me
Lizzie Sider - Butterfly
Lizzie Sider - Butterfly
BUTTERFLY
By Lizzie Sider, Jamie O'Neal, Lisa Drew, Jimmy Murphy
I used to hide and keep inside
Afraid to show the world who I was
In shades of gray, I'd spend my days
So invisible because
They'd always put me down
Yeah, I let 'em keep me down
But look at me now, look at me now
Finally comin' out and I'm wantin' to fly
Gonna spread my wings, bright and colorful things
Let 'em take me up and touch the sky
They thought they knew me plain and shy
But all along I was a Butterfly
Why live a life in black and white
Wrapped up in a safe little space
It's only fear that kept me here
With dreams too big for this small place
They liked me deaf and dumb
Had no idea what I've become
And look at me now, look at me now
Finally comin' out and I'm wantin' to fly
Gonna spread my wings, bright and colorful things
Let 'em take me up and touch the sky
They thought they knew me plain and shy
But all along I was a Butterfly
These colors of mine are unique
Gonna be who I'm meant to be
Now I see it's all up to me
Look at me now, look at me now
Finally comin' out and I'm wantin' to fly
Gonna spread my wings, bright and colorful things
Let 'em take me up and touch the sky
They thought they knew me plain and shy
But all along I was a Butterfly
Yeah, I AM a Butterfly (look at me now, look at me now, look at me now)
Oh Yea
Yeah, I AM a Butterfly (look at me now, look at me now, look at me now)
Yeah, I AM a Butterfly (look at me now, look at me now, look at me now)
Twist And Pulse Anti-Bullying Ambassadors @ Quarry Bank Primary School
Twist And Pulse Anti-Bullying Ambassadors @ Quarry Bank Primary School
Toronto school telling its students not to be passive bystanders to bullying.
Ioanna Roumeliotis looks at a Toronto school that's telling its students not to be passive bystanders to bullying.
Coz We Can, From Beating Bullying to Random Acts of Kindness-Alex Holmes
Alex Holmes - "Estimates suggest that half the population is bullied at some point in their lives. Bullying is alive in schools, workplaces, the media, parliament and society!
For me it was a real issue that was affecting generations, but where to start? I figured that because young people spend an average of 11,000 hours of their lives in full time education it was so important to use this time to shape their understanding of what it means to be a community.
My talk is going to look at some of the creative techniques I adopted to change my school and community, the barriers I faced, the success and how I now want to change the world... Coz I Can!"
Alex Holmes is 24 years old, from Milton Keynes and was bullied at school when younger. As a result he has made it his mission in life to prevent this happening to others. He's received 3 Princess Diana Awards, has made his own TV advert against bullying, introduced 'Smile and Compliment days' into schools and helped young people shape the world around them. He now runs The Diana Award's Anti-Bullying Ambassador programme and is looking to create a national programme called 'Coz I Can' that will build a network of young people who take over their local areas and high streets to carry out good deeds and bridge community gaps.
Friday, October 19, 2012
Anti-Bully Blog's Book of the Month: "Bully in the Mirror" By: Shanaya Fastje
Bullying is everywhere....and so is media coverage of bullying. In recent months, Ladies Home Journal, The Week, Redbook, and New York times have all run articles on bullying. Edpisodes of Hannah Montana and Glee have dealt with bullying, and MTV launched a reality TV show called Bully Beatdown in 2009. Even the US Government is concerned; the Department of Health and Human Services has an interactive website dedicated to cyber-bullying. The Bully in the Mirror can be a powerful part of the solution. The book blends facts about the negative effects of bullying with the author's views. Since Shanaya is a 13 year old girl who has been bullied, her experiences and those of her friends create an immediate connection with today's kids. Each chapter provides important facts along with tips and exercises Shanaya created. Readers learn how bullies work and how to stop them in their tracks.
Purchase Book Visit: http://store.changinglivespress.com/products/bully-in-the-mirror
Shanaya Fastje Bully Expert - Interview
The Ultimate Anti-Bullying Quote Collection
"If you have no confidence in self, you are twice defeated in the race of life. With confidence, you have won even before you have started." -Marcus Garvey
"When a bystander gets involved, there's a good chance that bullying will decrease or stop entirely." - Shanaya Fastje
"If you see something, say something." -Shanaya Fastje
" When you're under attack, it's important to remember that a bully's words mean nothing. Never give hate any power." -Shanaya Fastje
"Being bullied in any form is not your fault." -Shanaya Fastje
"If your friends try to get you involved in bullying, find other friends." -Shanaya Fastje
“If you have a positive attitude and constantly strive to give your best effort, eventually you will overcome your immediate problems and find you are ready for greater challenges.” - Pat Riley
"when you see someone being bullied or are bullied yourself, you have a good chance to find out who you are-what you're really made of" -Shanaya Fastje
“Haters don't really hate you, they hate themselves; because you're a reflection of what they wish to be”
“Most haters are stuck in a poisonous mental prison of jealousy and self-doubt that blinds them to their own potentiality.” -Steve Maraboli
“Celebrate your victories! Be verbal about it. Haters will say you're bragging, but those who love you will celebrate with you.” -Steve Maraboli
“Behind every sucessful person lies a pack of Haters! I love my haters!”
― Gloria Tesch
“When people hurt you over and over, think of them like sand paper. They may scratch and hurt you a bit, but in the end, you end up polished and they end up useless.”
“Some people won't be happy until they've pushed you to the ground. What you have to do is have the courage to stand your ground and not give them the time of day. Hold on to your power and never give it away.”
― Donna Schoenrock
“It gets better. It seems hard, you know, I think being different is always gonna be a tough climb. There's always gonna be people that are scared of it. But at the end of the day you give those bullies, those people, that are so ignorant, if you give them the power to affect you, you're letting them win. And they don't deserve that. What you're doing by being yourself is you're keeping it real, and you're being really brave.”
“Bullying builds character like nuclear waste creates superheroes. It's a rare occurrence and often does much more damage than endowment.”
― Zack W. Van
“Everyone I say stop bullying it is sad and tears someones heart apart and next thing they do is Suicide because they think that is the right next step!
If you are a Person who gets bullied find someone who will stop this! Don't just kill yourself for the other person to be happy because you are gone! They are just jealous of you and want to start problems and make you a troublemaker! Ignore those mean cruel evil people in you life and spend time with the nice caring sweet loving angels of yours!
Because bullying is a dumb and stupid waste of time!
Try to shake it off the mean hurtful stuff and keep on doing the right stuff that is going to help you become a better person and when i say a better person i mean more than a better person!
-Skye Daphne
“Like all bullies, they’re cowards underneath the swagger" --Edward Cullen”
― Stephenie Meyer, Breaking Dawn
"Bullying is for people which dont have any confidence at all, so everyone which is being bullied, always remember; They are scared of you.You have something that they dont and thats what makes them bully you. Dont let any words from bullies affect you because they are the ones which need some confidence, not you."
"Never be bullied into silence. Never allow yourself to be made a victim. Accept no ones definition of your life; Define yourself."
"When people don't like themselves very much, they have to make up for it. The classic bully was actually a victim first."
"Bullies need to make others feel insecure because they are insecure."
"If you turn and face the other way when someone is being bullied, you might as well be the bully too."
“I was viewed as a little bit of an outcast. I didn’t have one group of friends who I hung out with every single day. I would have friends on my football team, friends in drama, friends in video production, and I would hand out with different people. I know that wasn’t the normal thing to do in high school. The normal thing is to be ina group or be part of a clique. But for me, I love hanging out with different people and just having fun.”
— Taylor Lautner on Seventeen Magazine
‘There are two ways you can go with it. You can let it destroy you.. or you can use it as fuel to drive you: to dream bigger, work harder. I wasn’t invited to parties and I look back now and I’m so thankful that I was at home, playing the guitar until my fingers bled.’ -Taylor Swift
"I was bullied every second of every day in elementary and middle school...Obviously, people are going to bring you down because of your drive. But, ultimately, it makes you a stronger person to turn your cheek and go the other way." Selena Gomez
"I got made fun of constantly (in high school)! That's what built my character. That's what makes you who you are. When you get made fun of-when people point out your weaknesses-that's just another opportunity for you to rise above." -ZAC EFRON
"You will spend your lives trying to figure out how to keep others down because it makes you feel more important. There is a big world out there bigger than prom, bigger than high school. It won't matter if you were the prom queen or the quarterback of the football team or the biggest nerd in the school. Find out who you are and try not to be afraid of it."-DREW BARRYMORE
"I allowed myself to be bullied because I was scared and didn't know how to defend myself. I was bullied until I prevented a new student from being bullied. By standing up for him, I learned to stand up for myself." - Jackie Chan
"Society paints this picture where you have to have the longest hair and the thinnest body and you can't help but want to be that beautiful person you see on that picture. But then you have to start asking yourself the question - is that realistic for you? I began to ask myself those questions: Who am I working out for? Who am I looking good for? When I look in the mirror who do I want to please? Do I want to please people or do I want to please Mary first? So I began to want to please myself first. I can't please everybody. I can't be the slimmest girl. Be the best you that you can be. I was drawing negative people around me with my negative thoughts. You gotta change the way you think about yourself or else everyone's going to think whatever you're thinking about yourself. " -Mary J Blige
"You just have to hold your chin up and take it as a compliment that certain people dedicate that much time and effort to talk about you. I don't think I'll ever stop experiencing that, I have just gotten better at understanding and dealing with it." -AUDRINA PATRIDGE
"My rule is to just be who I am. Sometimes I don't take my own "advice, but I know that no matter what, I can be happy with continuing to go forward. I wake up in the morning proud of the man I'm becoming." -CHAD MICHAEL MURRAY
"There were bullies. I don't think there was just one. My mom was a teacher, and everyone thought I was goody two shoes (which I kind of was!) I got teased a lot for that. But that's in the past. It builds character and you learn from it." -BRANDON ROUTH
"Girls get mean when they feel threatened. Sharpay's feet get stepped on, so she gets vicious. Mean girls are the same way. I think they're very insecure. They look like they have it all together, but it's a mask. If you look at them and think they are this way or that way, you're actually buying into the stereotype and making it all worse." -ASHLEY TISDALE
"If you don't respect yourself the way you should - if you don't realize your own value and worth - then somebody else will see that and take advantage of it." -KELLY ROWLAND
"It's just better to be yourself than to try to be some version of what you think the other person wants." - MATT DAMON
"I was a mean girl. I had a gift for coming up with the meanest possible thing to say in any situation. Well, at my high school -- a huge public school in a suburb of Philadelphia -- there were a few girls who were kind of "famous." Everyone knew who they were dating and what parties they went to. They weren't the prettiest girls or the ones with money. They were just randomly anointed. I was an honor student, and I was in a ton of activities -- the newspaper, drama club, the tennis team ... My friends and I didn't really date or go to cool parties, so we made jokes about those who did. To be honest, we felt kind of rejected, and when you don't feel confident about yourself, you may look for flaws in somebody else to make you feel better. Looking back, I can see the mean-girl thing for what it is: a waste of energy. But that's not much comfort if you're the target. The hardest thing is to free yourself from caring what someone says about you. But it brings big freedom if you do it." -TINA FEY
"I was like any other teenage girl who wanted to be someone I'm not, and that was defined by what boys liked and what images of beauty the media perpetrated. Plus, when I was 7 years old, my ballet teacher said that I didn't have a dancer's body. That rang in my head as "I'm not normal; my body is wrong." It affected me in profound ways. I'm a strong girl, but I've always been a believer that when I can't manage, I surrender. I get myself to a place where someone can help me. I'm prouder of overcoming bulimia than of anything else I've done - more than having a number one record or selling out a concert. Celebrate yourself, embrace your struggle, and don't walk with shame, because nothing is as bad as you probably think it is. When I got through bulimia, I stopped living as a prisoner. Let your body fall into its natural state. Every minute you stay enthralled with a diet or get caught up in how you think you should look, you lose, because you're not enjoying life." -PAULA ABDUL
"Don't be preoccupied with looking for approval from other people. You're never going to be anybody but who you are. And who you are is greater than you imagine. The way that you think creates our reality. It's very powerful. I would say to a young girl who is feeling insecure about her looks to stop. Who you are is not the way you look; who you are is who you are on the inside. And there is not a mirror in the world that can show you that. It is beautiful, it is amazing, it is awesome.' -PHYLICIA RASHAD
Celebrities Who Were Bullied In School
Emma Watson
An Ivy League education proved to be less than magical for Harry Potter star Emma Watson, who reportedly dropped out of Brown University because she was bullied. Fellow students said that Watson was mercilessly taunted at school, with some classmates making comments like “Three points for Gryffindor!” whenever she answered a question in class. The 21-year-old actress and model announced in March that she would be taking a break from Brown, but claimed she was just trying to focus on her acting career. “I will still be working towards my degree… it’s just going to take me a semester or two longer than I thought,” Watson wrote on her website. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Watson is worth an estimated $32 million—so she should be laughing all the way to the bank.
Robert Pattinson
He may have won over millions of teenaged girls globally, but Twilight's resident vampire Robert Pattinson was not exactly on the good side of his classmates growing up in Britain. "I got beaten up by a lot of people when I was younger," the 23-year-old actor told Parade.com in March. "I was a bit of an idiot, but I always thought the assaults were unprovoked… I liked to behave like an actor, or how I thought an actor was supposed to be, and that apparently provoked a lot of people into hitting me." But Pattinson also experienced what it was like to have the shoe on the other foot—both literally and figuratively. "Someone stole my shoelaces once from my shoes," he told The Daily Express in August. "I still wear them and never put laces in them."
Sandra Bullock
Being raised by a German mother caused Oscar-winning actress Sandra Bullock to receive cruel comments from her classmates. As a professional opera singer, Helga Meyer dragged Bullock from their home in Virginia to her performances in Europe, leaving the young girl culturally clueless in her native country. "I'd come back [to school] from Europe and I looked like a clown compared to the cool way the other students looked and dressed. So I got my ass whooped a little bit," Bullock admitted in 2009. "Kids are mean, and the sad thing is that I can still remember the first and last names of every one of those kids who were mean to me!"
Tom Cruise
Tom Cruise turned to Scientology in part due to childhood taunting. Young Tom struggled with reading, which did not escape his peers nor his school, forcing him into remedial classes and on the margin of the social circle. He moved from school to school—15 different ones over 12 years—but the small-for-his-age future actor still had difficulties academically and with his classmates. "Your heart's pounding, you sweat, and you feel like you're going to vomit," Cruise said of being bullied in 2006. "I'm not the biggest guy, I never liked hitting someone, but I know if I don't hit that guy hard he's going to pick on me all year. I go, ‘You better fight.' I just laid it down. I don't like bullies." At age 7, a school psychologist diagnosed him with dyslexia, which led to Cruise rejecting the study of psychiatry and his eventual decision to join the Church of Scientology. But school bullies were not his only problem—the star's father also knocked him down time and time again. "He was a bully and a coward," Cruise told Parade.com of his dad. "He was the kind of person where, if something goes wrong, they kick you."
Howard Stern
Howard Stern suffered some serious flak for making fun of Precious star Gabourey Sidibe earlier this year, but perhaps the shock jock was just a victim of the cycle of bullying abuse. On his radio show in January, Stern discussed growing up in a largely black neighborhood in Roosevelt, Long Island, and then trying to fit in when he moved to a mostly white area later in his educational career. The mama's boy said his parents claimed to move out of Roosevelt to Rockville Center for him, but Stern did not find his new surroundings particularly comforting. "Thanks to my overprotective mother, I was the target of every bully in the neighborhood," he wrote in his book Private Parts. "A fat neighborhood kid named Johnny, who used to blow his nose into his Italian ices, then eat them with a wooden spoon, used to beat me up so regularly that my parents made me go to judo school to learn to defend myself."
Miley Cyrus
Miley Cyrus may have the best of both worlds now, but that was not always the case. In her 2009 autobiography, the now-17-year-old pop star revealed how she survived her unofficial un-fan club in her pre-teen years growing up in Tennessee. "The girls took it beyond normal bullying. These were big, tough girls [known as] the Anti-Miley Club," Cyrus wrote in Miles to Go. "I was scrawny and short. They were fully capable of doing me bodily harm." And they seemingly tried to—shoving her into a bathroom during class and locking her inside on one occasion. "I spent what felt like an hour in there, waiting for someone to rescue me, wondering how my life had gotten so messed up," Cyrus wrote of the incident. Plus, there were also instances of verbal abuse, often directed at her "Achy Breaky Heart" singing father, Billy Ray. "Your dad's a one-hit wonder," she recalled one classmate saying. "You'll never amount to anything—just like him."
Michael Phelps
Before he became a record-breaking Olympian with a collection of gold medals to his name, Michael Phelps was a kid with unwieldy limbs, "sticky-out ears," and a lisp that caused him to be teased by his peers. Phelps has openly discussed his "deep hurt" over bullying early in life. He also dealt with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, for which he spent two years on medication. A teacher even told Phelps' mother, "He's not gifted. Your son will never be able to focus on anything." These days though, Phelps' trainer calls him the "motivation machine," explaining, "bad moods, good moods, he channels everything for gain."
Chris Rock
Apparently, there was a time when everybody really did hate Chris Rock. The comedian has talked openly about his struggles as the only black student in his New York school, saying, "I got beat up just about every day. I got called n***** every single day. I got kicked and whatever. What happened to me then, today kids come to school with guns and shoot everybody—but I couldn't find a gun back then." Clearly still haunted by the painful words of his youth, Rock turned the experience into comedy with his show Everybody Hates Chris, which actually inspired one of his former teachers to write Rock an apology letter for his less-than-pleasant elementary school days.
Christina Aguilera
Before joining her showbiz peers like Britney Spears and Justin Timberlake as a cast member on the New Mickey Mouse Club, Christina Aguilera's dreams of stardom rendered her an outsider with her classmates. "I would get a lot of cold shoulders because there was just no way they could relate to what I loved to do," Aguilera has said. "You know, it's not really normal for a child to just want to be in front of the camera and on stage. It's not something that all kids want to do—they want to play in the playground. You know, it was hard for me to relate to other kids because I didn't have the same interests. I was even more the oddball, I felt, because of that." After joining Mickey Mouse Club, Aguilera, who once had her tires slashed by classmates, says, "it was really exciting for me to almost feel I'd found my kind."
Bill Clinton
Long before Bill Clinton became our 42nd president, he struggled with self-image and body weight. During his fight against childhood obesity, the former president noted that his love for fast food was a likely contributor to his need for his September 2004 quadruple bypass. "I realized that one more time I've been given another chance, and I wanted to make the most of it," said Clinton. "I was the fat band boy" wearing unfashionable jeans. During a YMCA dance, an older boy teased Clinton for donning carpenter's pants. When Clinton jawed back, the boy, who stood a whopping 6-foot-6, punched him in the jaw. Clinton may have come out of it with a sore face, but after taking the hit like a champ, standing his ground, and earning the respect of the older student, the politician also gained a lesson in perseverance.
Tiger Woods
On Tiger Woods' first day of kindergarten in 1981, the future golf stud was tied to a tree and taunted with racial slurs by older schoolboys. While that incident seems to be the only one of such a level of severity, Woods also had to cope with a stuttering problem. "It was very difficult, but I fought through it. I went to a school to try and get over that, and I just would work my tail off. And I would talk to my dog," said Woods on 60 Minutes. Sometimes, we all just need a good listener.
Demi Lovato
Girls will be girls. And, as Demi Lovato knows, they can be all too cruel. On The Ellen DeGeneres Show, shed opened up about the bullying she endured in 7th grade – teasing that eventually prompted her to be home-schooled. "I never really understood why [I was being bullied] until looking back," she says, noting that she was already a working actress – which made her an easy target. "I had a different lifestyle then everyone else."
Kate Winslet
Kate Winslet still gets pestered for her fluctuating feminine figure, but in school it was apparently much worse, with kids calling her “Blubber.” The actress said, “I was bullied for being chubby… I was the girl that people would always say, ‘Ah, it’s such a shame, because you’ve got such a pretty face.’” That’s why the “I can lose weight but you’ll always be ugly” comeback is such a zinger.
Kristen Stewart
Kristen Stewart might be hugely popular nowadays, but she wasn’t quite as beloved in high school—she’s told the press that she got bullied by her peers: “I’m glad I could do those films and I was glad to leave school. I couldn’t relate to kids my own age. They are mean and don’t give you any chance. I was never the type of girl to be walking around talking about acting, so in the beginning I didn’t get hassled, until someone realized. I tried to play it down but I got, ‘Oh, she’s such a bitch.’ Since I was 14, I continued my education via correspondence while concentrating on my career. The day I did the graduation scene in ‘Eclipse,’ I had just finished high school myself the week before.”
Christian Bale
Christian Bale starred in “Empire of the Sun” when he was 13 years old, but instead of an instant entourage, he was instantly hated on in school. Bale says, “It was not a great time. I was a victim of bullying and had other kids kicking and punching me every day. It was an early lesson in how making a film can set you apart. If you don’t want to live with the consequences then don’t make the film. But that didn’t help at the time. I was confused about other people’s reactions to me, both good and bad. It can mess anyone up.” I bet they got way nicer once “Newsies” came out and they realized what an awesome singer Christian is!
Jessica Alba
Jessica Alba seems like the nicest person ever, which is probably why she was tortured in school. The actress claims she was shy and awkward and had to be protected by adults: “I was bullied so badly my dad used to have to walk me into school so I didn’t get attacked ... I’d eat my lunch in the nurse’s office so I didn’t have to sit with the other girls.
Rosario Dawson
Rosario Dawson might be all grown up and glamorous now, but apparently it took longer for her to grow up than most. When asked if she was bullied as a kid, the actress said, “Absolutely. It was always about how I physically looked. Growing up, a lot of the girls in my school started developing quickly. My mom has a very pronounced bust line and I was a late bloomer. One of my worst memories is getting all dressed up for a school activity and having the girls pick on me because I was flat chested. I was very much a tomboy for a long time.”
Megan Fox
It’s hard to feel sorry for people as pretty as Megan Fox, but it’s comforting that she also endured high school harassment. She says, “I was bullied and it’s hard, you feel like high school’s never going to be over. It’s four years of your life and you just have to remember the person picking on you had their own problems and their own issues. And you’re going to be OK ... usually bullies are the most insecure.” Doesn’t it seem like high school was way longer than four years?
Chad Michael Murray
"I had my two front teeth knocked out by a sixth grader in first grade. He picked me up and jacked me in the mouth. My house got egged, and all that stuff that happens to you when you're growing up with people who don't understand what's going on.. I hated high school, to be honest. I enjoyed the educational part of it; my teachers allowed me to be creative. But I didn't have any friends, because I didn't fit in.. I thought past high school to what I wanted to do."
Chad Michael Murray
"I had my two front teeth knocked out by a sixth grader in first grade. He picked me up and jacked me in the mouth. My house got egged, and all that stuff that happens to you when you're growing up with people who don't understand what's going on.. I hated high school, to be honest. I enjoyed the educational part of it; my teachers allowed me to be creative. But I didn't have any friends, because I didn't fit in.. I thought past high school to what I wanted to do."
Justin Timberlake
"If you didn't play play football, you were a sissy. I got slurs all the time because I was in music and art . . . I was an outcast in a lot of ways . . . everything that you get picked on or you feel makes you weird is essentially what's going to make you sexy as an adult."
Mischa Barton
"I just wasn't part of the popular clique," she has said. "I was on the outside of it and that was when I was the most self-conscious... I didn't dress cool enough, and I didn't have enough money."
Taylor Lautner
Taylor Lautner dealt with the same. “Because I was an actor, when I was in school there was a little bullying going on,” he told Rolling Stone. “Not physical bullying but people making fun of what I do ... I just had to tell myself I can’t let this get to me. This is what I love to do. And I’m going to continue to do it.”
Daniel Radcliffe
“I wasn’t the most popular kid because they wanted to give me a lot of c**p and I wasn’t willing to take it,” the 19-year-old told The Mirror. The young star also said he had a real fight once when he tried helping a kid in school. “I was 14, he was 19. There’d been a bit of animosity between us already and he was being horrible to a kid I knew, so I pulled him off this other bloke and he punched me in the face,” he said.
Eminem
"I was beat up in the bathrooms, in the hallways, shoved in the lockers -- for the most part for being the new kid," Eminem, born Marshall Mathers, told Cooper about getting bullied in grade school, mainly because he moved around so much that he was a lot of times the new kid on campus.
What helped Eminem overcome this tough phase of his life, though, was rapping. "I found something.. 'yeah, this kid over here may have more chicks or better clothes, but he can't do this like me,'" he recalled about when he began to rap. "I started to feel like, 'Maybe Marshall is getting a little respect.'"
"Respect" is what he's been searching for his entire career, Eminem said. "It might sound corny," he sid, "but I felt like a fighter coming up."
The segment is appropriately timed, especially since so many young kids, particularly LGBT youths, have committed suicide lately because of bullying in schools. Although Eminem is not Gay and has actually in the past been condemned for seeming be anti-Gay (something he says he isn't during the interview), I think the message will resonate with many kids contemplating an easy way out. Even the biggest of stars have gone through bullying and survived it and, furthermore, have come out on top -- so can you.
"I don't want to go overboard with it, but I do feel if I can help people that have been through similar situations, why not?" Eminem said in reference to his latest "Not Afraid" track.
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"When a bystander gets involved, there's a good chance that bullying will decrease or stop entirely." - Shanaya Fastje
"If you see something, say something." -Shanaya Fastje
" When you're under attack, it's important to remember that a bully's words mean nothing. Never give hate any power." -Shanaya Fastje
"Being bullied in any form is not your fault." -Shanaya Fastje
"If your friends try to get you involved in bullying, find other friends." -Shanaya Fastje
“If you have a positive attitude and constantly strive to give your best effort, eventually you will overcome your immediate problems and find you are ready for greater challenges.” - Pat Riley
"when you see someone being bullied or are bullied yourself, you have a good chance to find out who you are-what you're really made of" -Shanaya Fastje
“Haters don't really hate you, they hate themselves; because you're a reflection of what they wish to be”
“Most haters are stuck in a poisonous mental prison of jealousy and self-doubt that blinds them to their own potentiality.” -Steve Maraboli
“Celebrate your victories! Be verbal about it. Haters will say you're bragging, but those who love you will celebrate with you.” -Steve Maraboli
“Behind every sucessful person lies a pack of Haters! I love my haters!”
― Gloria Tesch
“When people hurt you over and over, think of them like sand paper. They may scratch and hurt you a bit, but in the end, you end up polished and they end up useless.”
“Some people won't be happy until they've pushed you to the ground. What you have to do is have the courage to stand your ground and not give them the time of day. Hold on to your power and never give it away.”
― Donna Schoenrock
“It gets better. It seems hard, you know, I think being different is always gonna be a tough climb. There's always gonna be people that are scared of it. But at the end of the day you give those bullies, those people, that are so ignorant, if you give them the power to affect you, you're letting them win. And they don't deserve that. What you're doing by being yourself is you're keeping it real, and you're being really brave.”
“Bullying builds character like nuclear waste creates superheroes. It's a rare occurrence and often does much more damage than endowment.”
― Zack W. Van
“Everyone I say stop bullying it is sad and tears someones heart apart and next thing they do is Suicide because they think that is the right next step!
If you are a Person who gets bullied find someone who will stop this! Don't just kill yourself for the other person to be happy because you are gone! They are just jealous of you and want to start problems and make you a troublemaker! Ignore those mean cruel evil people in you life and spend time with the nice caring sweet loving angels of yours!
Because bullying is a dumb and stupid waste of time!
Try to shake it off the mean hurtful stuff and keep on doing the right stuff that is going to help you become a better person and when i say a better person i mean more than a better person!
-Skye Daphne
“Like all bullies, they’re cowards underneath the swagger" --Edward Cullen”
― Stephenie Meyer, Breaking Dawn
"Bullying is for people which dont have any confidence at all, so everyone which is being bullied, always remember; They are scared of you.You have something that they dont and thats what makes them bully you. Dont let any words from bullies affect you because they are the ones which need some confidence, not you."
"Never be bullied into silence. Never allow yourself to be made a victim. Accept no ones definition of your life; Define yourself."
"When people don't like themselves very much, they have to make up for it. The classic bully was actually a victim first."
"Bullies need to make others feel insecure because they are insecure."
"If you turn and face the other way when someone is being bullied, you might as well be the bully too."
“I was viewed as a little bit of an outcast. I didn’t have one group of friends who I hung out with every single day. I would have friends on my football team, friends in drama, friends in video production, and I would hand out with different people. I know that wasn’t the normal thing to do in high school. The normal thing is to be ina group or be part of a clique. But for me, I love hanging out with different people and just having fun.”
— Taylor Lautner on Seventeen Magazine
‘There are two ways you can go with it. You can let it destroy you.. or you can use it as fuel to drive you: to dream bigger, work harder. I wasn’t invited to parties and I look back now and I’m so thankful that I was at home, playing the guitar until my fingers bled.’ -Taylor Swift
"I was bullied every second of every day in elementary and middle school...Obviously, people are going to bring you down because of your drive. But, ultimately, it makes you a stronger person to turn your cheek and go the other way." Selena Gomez
"I got made fun of constantly (in high school)! That's what built my character. That's what makes you who you are. When you get made fun of-when people point out your weaknesses-that's just another opportunity for you to rise above." -ZAC EFRON
"You will spend your lives trying to figure out how to keep others down because it makes you feel more important. There is a big world out there bigger than prom, bigger than high school. It won't matter if you were the prom queen or the quarterback of the football team or the biggest nerd in the school. Find out who you are and try not to be afraid of it."-DREW BARRYMORE
"I allowed myself to be bullied because I was scared and didn't know how to defend myself. I was bullied until I prevented a new student from being bullied. By standing up for him, I learned to stand up for myself." - Jackie Chan
"Society paints this picture where you have to have the longest hair and the thinnest body and you can't help but want to be that beautiful person you see on that picture. But then you have to start asking yourself the question - is that realistic for you? I began to ask myself those questions: Who am I working out for? Who am I looking good for? When I look in the mirror who do I want to please? Do I want to please people or do I want to please Mary first? So I began to want to please myself first. I can't please everybody. I can't be the slimmest girl. Be the best you that you can be. I was drawing negative people around me with my negative thoughts. You gotta change the way you think about yourself or else everyone's going to think whatever you're thinking about yourself. " -Mary J Blige
"You just have to hold your chin up and take it as a compliment that certain people dedicate that much time and effort to talk about you. I don't think I'll ever stop experiencing that, I have just gotten better at understanding and dealing with it." -AUDRINA PATRIDGE
"My rule is to just be who I am. Sometimes I don't take my own "advice, but I know that no matter what, I can be happy with continuing to go forward. I wake up in the morning proud of the man I'm becoming." -CHAD MICHAEL MURRAY
"There were bullies. I don't think there was just one. My mom was a teacher, and everyone thought I was goody two shoes (which I kind of was!) I got teased a lot for that. But that's in the past. It builds character and you learn from it." -BRANDON ROUTH
"Girls get mean when they feel threatened. Sharpay's feet get stepped on, so she gets vicious. Mean girls are the same way. I think they're very insecure. They look like they have it all together, but it's a mask. If you look at them and think they are this way or that way, you're actually buying into the stereotype and making it all worse." -ASHLEY TISDALE
"If you don't respect yourself the way you should - if you don't realize your own value and worth - then somebody else will see that and take advantage of it." -KELLY ROWLAND
"It's just better to be yourself than to try to be some version of what you think the other person wants." - MATT DAMON
"I was a mean girl. I had a gift for coming up with the meanest possible thing to say in any situation. Well, at my high school -- a huge public school in a suburb of Philadelphia -- there were a few girls who were kind of "famous." Everyone knew who they were dating and what parties they went to. They weren't the prettiest girls or the ones with money. They were just randomly anointed. I was an honor student, and I was in a ton of activities -- the newspaper, drama club, the tennis team ... My friends and I didn't really date or go to cool parties, so we made jokes about those who did. To be honest, we felt kind of rejected, and when you don't feel confident about yourself, you may look for flaws in somebody else to make you feel better. Looking back, I can see the mean-girl thing for what it is: a waste of energy. But that's not much comfort if you're the target. The hardest thing is to free yourself from caring what someone says about you. But it brings big freedom if you do it." -TINA FEY
"I was like any other teenage girl who wanted to be someone I'm not, and that was defined by what boys liked and what images of beauty the media perpetrated. Plus, when I was 7 years old, my ballet teacher said that I didn't have a dancer's body. That rang in my head as "I'm not normal; my body is wrong." It affected me in profound ways. I'm a strong girl, but I've always been a believer that when I can't manage, I surrender. I get myself to a place where someone can help me. I'm prouder of overcoming bulimia than of anything else I've done - more than having a number one record or selling out a concert. Celebrate yourself, embrace your struggle, and don't walk with shame, because nothing is as bad as you probably think it is. When I got through bulimia, I stopped living as a prisoner. Let your body fall into its natural state. Every minute you stay enthralled with a diet or get caught up in how you think you should look, you lose, because you're not enjoying life." -PAULA ABDUL
"Don't be preoccupied with looking for approval from other people. You're never going to be anybody but who you are. And who you are is greater than you imagine. The way that you think creates our reality. It's very powerful. I would say to a young girl who is feeling insecure about her looks to stop. Who you are is not the way you look; who you are is who you are on the inside. And there is not a mirror in the world that can show you that. It is beautiful, it is amazing, it is awesome.' -PHYLICIA RASHAD
Celebrities Who Were Bullied In School
Emma Watson
An Ivy League education proved to be less than magical for Harry Potter star Emma Watson, who reportedly dropped out of Brown University because she was bullied. Fellow students said that Watson was mercilessly taunted at school, with some classmates making comments like “Three points for Gryffindor!” whenever she answered a question in class. The 21-year-old actress and model announced in March that she would be taking a break from Brown, but claimed she was just trying to focus on her acting career. “I will still be working towards my degree… it’s just going to take me a semester or two longer than I thought,” Watson wrote on her website. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Watson is worth an estimated $32 million—so she should be laughing all the way to the bank.
Robert Pattinson
He may have won over millions of teenaged girls globally, but Twilight's resident vampire Robert Pattinson was not exactly on the good side of his classmates growing up in Britain. "I got beaten up by a lot of people when I was younger," the 23-year-old actor told Parade.com in March. "I was a bit of an idiot, but I always thought the assaults were unprovoked… I liked to behave like an actor, or how I thought an actor was supposed to be, and that apparently provoked a lot of people into hitting me." But Pattinson also experienced what it was like to have the shoe on the other foot—both literally and figuratively. "Someone stole my shoelaces once from my shoes," he told The Daily Express in August. "I still wear them and never put laces in them."
Sandra Bullock
Being raised by a German mother caused Oscar-winning actress Sandra Bullock to receive cruel comments from her classmates. As a professional opera singer, Helga Meyer dragged Bullock from their home in Virginia to her performances in Europe, leaving the young girl culturally clueless in her native country. "I'd come back [to school] from Europe and I looked like a clown compared to the cool way the other students looked and dressed. So I got my ass whooped a little bit," Bullock admitted in 2009. "Kids are mean, and the sad thing is that I can still remember the first and last names of every one of those kids who were mean to me!"
Tom Cruise
Tom Cruise turned to Scientology in part due to childhood taunting. Young Tom struggled with reading, which did not escape his peers nor his school, forcing him into remedial classes and on the margin of the social circle. He moved from school to school—15 different ones over 12 years—but the small-for-his-age future actor still had difficulties academically and with his classmates. "Your heart's pounding, you sweat, and you feel like you're going to vomit," Cruise said of being bullied in 2006. "I'm not the biggest guy, I never liked hitting someone, but I know if I don't hit that guy hard he's going to pick on me all year. I go, ‘You better fight.' I just laid it down. I don't like bullies." At age 7, a school psychologist diagnosed him with dyslexia, which led to Cruise rejecting the study of psychiatry and his eventual decision to join the Church of Scientology. But school bullies were not his only problem—the star's father also knocked him down time and time again. "He was a bully and a coward," Cruise told Parade.com of his dad. "He was the kind of person where, if something goes wrong, they kick you."
Howard Stern
Howard Stern suffered some serious flak for making fun of Precious star Gabourey Sidibe earlier this year, but perhaps the shock jock was just a victim of the cycle of bullying abuse. On his radio show in January, Stern discussed growing up in a largely black neighborhood in Roosevelt, Long Island, and then trying to fit in when he moved to a mostly white area later in his educational career. The mama's boy said his parents claimed to move out of Roosevelt to Rockville Center for him, but Stern did not find his new surroundings particularly comforting. "Thanks to my overprotective mother, I was the target of every bully in the neighborhood," he wrote in his book Private Parts. "A fat neighborhood kid named Johnny, who used to blow his nose into his Italian ices, then eat them with a wooden spoon, used to beat me up so regularly that my parents made me go to judo school to learn to defend myself."
Miley Cyrus
Miley Cyrus may have the best of both worlds now, but that was not always the case. In her 2009 autobiography, the now-17-year-old pop star revealed how she survived her unofficial un-fan club in her pre-teen years growing up in Tennessee. "The girls took it beyond normal bullying. These were big, tough girls [known as] the Anti-Miley Club," Cyrus wrote in Miles to Go. "I was scrawny and short. They were fully capable of doing me bodily harm." And they seemingly tried to—shoving her into a bathroom during class and locking her inside on one occasion. "I spent what felt like an hour in there, waiting for someone to rescue me, wondering how my life had gotten so messed up," Cyrus wrote of the incident. Plus, there were also instances of verbal abuse, often directed at her "Achy Breaky Heart" singing father, Billy Ray. "Your dad's a one-hit wonder," she recalled one classmate saying. "You'll never amount to anything—just like him."
Michael Phelps
Before he became a record-breaking Olympian with a collection of gold medals to his name, Michael Phelps was a kid with unwieldy limbs, "sticky-out ears," and a lisp that caused him to be teased by his peers. Phelps has openly discussed his "deep hurt" over bullying early in life. He also dealt with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, for which he spent two years on medication. A teacher even told Phelps' mother, "He's not gifted. Your son will never be able to focus on anything." These days though, Phelps' trainer calls him the "motivation machine," explaining, "bad moods, good moods, he channels everything for gain."
Chris Rock
Apparently, there was a time when everybody really did hate Chris Rock. The comedian has talked openly about his struggles as the only black student in his New York school, saying, "I got beat up just about every day. I got called n***** every single day. I got kicked and whatever. What happened to me then, today kids come to school with guns and shoot everybody—but I couldn't find a gun back then." Clearly still haunted by the painful words of his youth, Rock turned the experience into comedy with his show Everybody Hates Chris, which actually inspired one of his former teachers to write Rock an apology letter for his less-than-pleasant elementary school days.
Christina Aguilera
Before joining her showbiz peers like Britney Spears and Justin Timberlake as a cast member on the New Mickey Mouse Club, Christina Aguilera's dreams of stardom rendered her an outsider with her classmates. "I would get a lot of cold shoulders because there was just no way they could relate to what I loved to do," Aguilera has said. "You know, it's not really normal for a child to just want to be in front of the camera and on stage. It's not something that all kids want to do—they want to play in the playground. You know, it was hard for me to relate to other kids because I didn't have the same interests. I was even more the oddball, I felt, because of that." After joining Mickey Mouse Club, Aguilera, who once had her tires slashed by classmates, says, "it was really exciting for me to almost feel I'd found my kind."
Bill Clinton
Long before Bill Clinton became our 42nd president, he struggled with self-image and body weight. During his fight against childhood obesity, the former president noted that his love for fast food was a likely contributor to his need for his September 2004 quadruple bypass. "I realized that one more time I've been given another chance, and I wanted to make the most of it," said Clinton. "I was the fat band boy" wearing unfashionable jeans. During a YMCA dance, an older boy teased Clinton for donning carpenter's pants. When Clinton jawed back, the boy, who stood a whopping 6-foot-6, punched him in the jaw. Clinton may have come out of it with a sore face, but after taking the hit like a champ, standing his ground, and earning the respect of the older student, the politician also gained a lesson in perseverance.
Tiger Woods
On Tiger Woods' first day of kindergarten in 1981, the future golf stud was tied to a tree and taunted with racial slurs by older schoolboys. While that incident seems to be the only one of such a level of severity, Woods also had to cope with a stuttering problem. "It was very difficult, but I fought through it. I went to a school to try and get over that, and I just would work my tail off. And I would talk to my dog," said Woods on 60 Minutes. Sometimes, we all just need a good listener.
Demi Lovato
Girls will be girls. And, as Demi Lovato knows, they can be all too cruel. On The Ellen DeGeneres Show, shed opened up about the bullying she endured in 7th grade – teasing that eventually prompted her to be home-schooled. "I never really understood why [I was being bullied] until looking back," she says, noting that she was already a working actress – which made her an easy target. "I had a different lifestyle then everyone else."
Kate Winslet
Kate Winslet still gets pestered for her fluctuating feminine figure, but in school it was apparently much worse, with kids calling her “Blubber.” The actress said, “I was bullied for being chubby… I was the girl that people would always say, ‘Ah, it’s such a shame, because you’ve got such a pretty face.’” That’s why the “I can lose weight but you’ll always be ugly” comeback is such a zinger.
Kristen Stewart
Kristen Stewart might be hugely popular nowadays, but she wasn’t quite as beloved in high school—she’s told the press that she got bullied by her peers: “I’m glad I could do those films and I was glad to leave school. I couldn’t relate to kids my own age. They are mean and don’t give you any chance. I was never the type of girl to be walking around talking about acting, so in the beginning I didn’t get hassled, until someone realized. I tried to play it down but I got, ‘Oh, she’s such a bitch.’ Since I was 14, I continued my education via correspondence while concentrating on my career. The day I did the graduation scene in ‘Eclipse,’ I had just finished high school myself the week before.”
Christian Bale
Christian Bale starred in “Empire of the Sun” when he was 13 years old, but instead of an instant entourage, he was instantly hated on in school. Bale says, “It was not a great time. I was a victim of bullying and had other kids kicking and punching me every day. It was an early lesson in how making a film can set you apart. If you don’t want to live with the consequences then don’t make the film. But that didn’t help at the time. I was confused about other people’s reactions to me, both good and bad. It can mess anyone up.” I bet they got way nicer once “Newsies” came out and they realized what an awesome singer Christian is!
Jessica Alba
Jessica Alba seems like the nicest person ever, which is probably why she was tortured in school. The actress claims she was shy and awkward and had to be protected by adults: “I was bullied so badly my dad used to have to walk me into school so I didn’t get attacked ... I’d eat my lunch in the nurse’s office so I didn’t have to sit with the other girls.
Rosario Dawson
Rosario Dawson might be all grown up and glamorous now, but apparently it took longer for her to grow up than most. When asked if she was bullied as a kid, the actress said, “Absolutely. It was always about how I physically looked. Growing up, a lot of the girls in my school started developing quickly. My mom has a very pronounced bust line and I was a late bloomer. One of my worst memories is getting all dressed up for a school activity and having the girls pick on me because I was flat chested. I was very much a tomboy for a long time.”
Megan Fox
It’s hard to feel sorry for people as pretty as Megan Fox, but it’s comforting that she also endured high school harassment. She says, “I was bullied and it’s hard, you feel like high school’s never going to be over. It’s four years of your life and you just have to remember the person picking on you had their own problems and their own issues. And you’re going to be OK ... usually bullies are the most insecure.” Doesn’t it seem like high school was way longer than four years?
Chad Michael Murray
"I had my two front teeth knocked out by a sixth grader in first grade. He picked me up and jacked me in the mouth. My house got egged, and all that stuff that happens to you when you're growing up with people who don't understand what's going on.. I hated high school, to be honest. I enjoyed the educational part of it; my teachers allowed me to be creative. But I didn't have any friends, because I didn't fit in.. I thought past high school to what I wanted to do."
Chad Michael Murray
"I had my two front teeth knocked out by a sixth grader in first grade. He picked me up and jacked me in the mouth. My house got egged, and all that stuff that happens to you when you're growing up with people who don't understand what's going on.. I hated high school, to be honest. I enjoyed the educational part of it; my teachers allowed me to be creative. But I didn't have any friends, because I didn't fit in.. I thought past high school to what I wanted to do."
Justin Timberlake
"If you didn't play play football, you were a sissy. I got slurs all the time because I was in music and art . . . I was an outcast in a lot of ways . . . everything that you get picked on or you feel makes you weird is essentially what's going to make you sexy as an adult."
Mischa Barton
"I just wasn't part of the popular clique," she has said. "I was on the outside of it and that was when I was the most self-conscious... I didn't dress cool enough, and I didn't have enough money."
Taylor Lautner
Taylor Lautner dealt with the same. “Because I was an actor, when I was in school there was a little bullying going on,” he told Rolling Stone. “Not physical bullying but people making fun of what I do ... I just had to tell myself I can’t let this get to me. This is what I love to do. And I’m going to continue to do it.”
Daniel Radcliffe
“I wasn’t the most popular kid because they wanted to give me a lot of c**p and I wasn’t willing to take it,” the 19-year-old told The Mirror. The young star also said he had a real fight once when he tried helping a kid in school. “I was 14, he was 19. There’d been a bit of animosity between us already and he was being horrible to a kid I knew, so I pulled him off this other bloke and he punched me in the face,” he said.
Eminem
"I was beat up in the bathrooms, in the hallways, shoved in the lockers -- for the most part for being the new kid," Eminem, born Marshall Mathers, told Cooper about getting bullied in grade school, mainly because he moved around so much that he was a lot of times the new kid on campus.
What helped Eminem overcome this tough phase of his life, though, was rapping. "I found something.. 'yeah, this kid over here may have more chicks or better clothes, but he can't do this like me,'" he recalled about when he began to rap. "I started to feel like, 'Maybe Marshall is getting a little respect.'"
"Respect" is what he's been searching for his entire career, Eminem said. "It might sound corny," he sid, "but I felt like a fighter coming up."
The segment is appropriately timed, especially since so many young kids, particularly LGBT youths, have committed suicide lately because of bullying in schools. Although Eminem is not Gay and has actually in the past been condemned for seeming be anti-Gay (something he says he isn't during the interview), I think the message will resonate with many kids contemplating an easy way out. Even the biggest of stars have gone through bullying and survived it and, furthermore, have come out on top -- so can you.
"I don't want to go overboard with it, but I do feel if I can help people that have been through similar situations, why not?" Eminem said in reference to his latest "Not Afraid" track.
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