Real Teens Speak Out

My Story

I can’t remember a time when I wasn’t bullied. I believe it started kindergarten, kids would pull me across the playground by my pigtails and chase me around before school started and tried to pull my pants down to embarrass me. It got worse as the years went on. I remember 3rd grade…A group of kids who thought I was too quiet jumped me on the basketball court. They choked me and punched my stomach. In middle school I was told by another kid that he was going to shoot me..He knew where i lived. The police were involved but nothing serious happened. I was already going through a lot with my mental health. I was seeing and hearing things, i was depressed and scared all the time. High school is where things hit the hardest. It was freshman year, I was a bigger girl ( very overweight ). I was bullied about my weight and my looks. I think it wasnt the bullying that made me feel so bad it was what was going on inside my head that made things hard. I couldn’t function at all, I was so out of it. I needed help. I began to do self harm.  Through the years I switched to around 4-5 schools after that.. I was lost, And every-time i reached out for help it always backfired and i was just a bunch of drama to my family. Now here i am, I am feeling a lot better. But whatever happens just know that your problems DO NOT define who you are. You are more than your depression and pain. You are strong.

Fat shamed

My name is Emma. I have and still am being fat shamed on Facebook. I have done a weight loss program to help lose weight and it worked. Starting out at a 3XL and now being an XL I felt great. Up until last week when I posted a selfloving weight loss post. Comments were hurtful and I felt ashamed. They told me “who lied to you and told you that your beautiful?” They would state that I was just coming up with excuses. I have struggled to leave the house. I struggle to talk to people. I’m struggling to write this… I am a person. I have feelings.

Bullying

Hi, Im Susan. I was bullied all through school. One bully stood out. Tara Smith, she bullied me all through junior high. She would say things to me like im gonna beat you up on the last day of school, she knew some students at another high school that if Tara paid them enough money they would beat me up! she said that I was ignorant. Tara said she couldn’t wait to go to her new school so she wouldn’t have to put up with me. I asked Tara why are you doing this to me? Tara said look at me and look at you. She thought because she was bigger than me that it made ok for Tara to bully me. My parents and I told the school, nothing was done about it. Tara never laid a hand on me. Its a good thing cause if Tara did something to hurt me she would have been in big trouble.

Jessyca’s story

I was born with a craniofacial disease called Stickler Syndrome, which I inherited from my mother . Oddly, my mother does not know where she got our commonly shared disease from. This disease has caused me to be severely nearsighted, have bad hearing, a short nose, a slightly flat face, and has caused me to experience some slight symptoms of scoliosis at a young age . As a kid, I’ve had several consultations about having reconstructive surgery on my nose, I have had hearing aids, and I have incredibly thick glasses . This disease has also taken a huge toll on my self esteem, as I’ve been bullied, not only by kids, but by adults as well. I remember one time being at a family friends house and hearing a guest say “That’s one ugly child.” Kids also would refer to me as “four eyes” and “ugly”. In elementary school, I got a vision teacher who I’d meet with and I’d receive tools like a Portable CCTV, iPad ,and magnifying glasses to better the way I see in school. The vision teacher stayed with me until 8th grade because I felt like I no longer needed them anymore and they were extremely distracting because they’d constantly pull me out of class. I started to feel so bad about my appearance and the fact that I needed a “vision teacher”, I stopped caring about how I looked . I’d go to school carelessly. My hair would be messy, my lips were chapped, my breath was smelly, and my skin would be hard and ashy because I didn’t take care of myself. The only thing that looked decent were my clothes because my mom ironed them until I got a certain age and was forced to do it myself. I also stopped using my CCTV, iPad, and magnifying glasses to avoid being seen. On top of that, I became very hostile towards my classmates and teachers, and would get in trouble frequently for my attitude. I became very tomboyish because I felt like I wasn’t pretty enough to do anything girly, like paint my nails and put on dresses . At the age of 10, I endured my first surgery to fix the bridge of my nose so that my glasses would stop sliding off my face . As I quickly recovered, I noticed that I was having frequent, daily nose bleeds. The surgeon who operated on me said it was drainage, but little did I know, my surgery had been botched . They used a donor bone to reconstruct my nose, but there was a problem. There was no blood going through my nose to support that bone so it died . I spent almost three whole years with these everyday nose bleeds and my confidence continued to plummet. Adding to that, there was a disgusting odor coming out of my nose . I suddenly became very socially awkward because who wants to be friends with the girl with thick glasses and a bloody nose ? At the age of 13, I underwent my second surgery to remove the bone in my nose . Long story short, it was a successful surgery and I quickly recovered. I started to look at myself in the mirror differently. I saw a change and started to explore my looks .The nosebleeds were gone and I wasn’t bullied as much besides a few snide comments here and there . At the age of 14, I had the same reconstructive surgery as I had at age 10, except instead of a donor bone, they used some cartilage from my rib . They put bandages on my nose and stitches in my nose and on my forehead. They also glued the incision on my rib shut . This was when the transformation truly happened. My nose wasn’t flat anymore, the nosebleeds were gone completely, and all I had left was a beautiful scar on my ribcage. The funny thing is, this all happened in 2018 and I am now a 15 year old sophomore and honors student in high school. I am still judged a lot for the way I look when I walk through the halls , but there’s a difference; I don’t care about what they say. I can finally say I feel more confident in myself , not because of the surgeries I’ve had , not because of the clothes on my back , not because of the people who love and adore me, but because of the uniqueness I have discovered in myself . My doll like eyes have seen more than any teen i know . My nose has been under the knife more than anyone I know and I’m still not completely done with the process yet . My mouth has had more stitches from all the surgeries than ever . My point is, I am a walking storybook . Every unique physical attribute about me has a story behind it. I hope in the future to become a craniofacial surgeon to inspire, learn about, and help people just like me and I’ve had endless support from all of my friends and family whom I love dearly . Adding to that, I have explored my feminine side and I feel confident enough to embrace it. If I could give any craniofacial kid advice, it would be to embrace how you look . There’s such a unique story to tell behind us all that the people need to hear. You ARE NOT the disease you suffer from. People are gonna tell you hurtful things and people are going to judge you constantly, but people are only obstacles put in this world to hold us down .I may be young and my story may not be complete, but my goal in life is to help people, and There’s nothing more helpful to people than to inspire them to embrace themselves and not worry about society’s standards . Rules are meant to be broken after all.

Your friend,
Jessyca Foster

Stop it please

High school and junior high were hell for me. Every day guys from adjacent classes would push me over, threaten me with knives, nails, or what ever sharp objects they had. I developed severe chronical depression and due to family problems I didn’t dare to speak at home. Some of my friends noticed that I went from a semi-loud guy to a quiet one, and instead of asking the reason they decided to spy on me to find out why did I go quiet. The bullying got harder, then comes summer, after which high school. naturally I was hoping for a fresh start but no. A bully just had to choose the same high school and immediatly started to rumour about my “skin disease that kills” I made a few new friends and I finally had enough. I told my friends what was going on, and for all I know the bully disappeared from school. If you are a bully Stop it. It isn’t gonna help you. And if you’re bullied either tell a staff member, or your friends.

My Younger Years

My bullying started, or when I first noticed it, when I was in around 2nd grade. There were two boys that were two grades higher than me and always called me names like ugly and useless. That wasn’t the worst of it though. One day on the bus one of the boys decided to “play a game” by me answering random facts about him. I didn’t have a choice in the matter since I was so young. When I lost the game, he pulled out a rubber bouncy ball completely impaled with toothpicks and threw it at me. He did this a total of three times before leaving the bus. Later he was expelled because I talked to my mother about it. I still have the scars on my arm and ankle from it.
Another case was when I was in my 8th grade year in a different school. I had left the previous school due to the fact that I was being constantly scrutinized and picked on by my peers and was yearning for a fresh start. This didn’t happen though when a kid from my old school moved to my new school and started to spread horrible rumors that I was watching pornography. I am a person who has an extreme phobia of sex and even talking about it makes me nervous so my parents knew immediately that this was a lie. Another thing that they teased me for was for standing by one of my friends who is transgender. Luckily they talked to the principal and things were set straight for me to finish my year in peace. I’m still waiting to see how my junior year goes in high school and if I need to write again or not.

An app against bullying

Hi,
I’ve been bullied mostly the whole time at junior high school. It was bad, I felt desperate, useless and unwanted. I couldn’t even understand how the kids can be so cruel? Why? I was even considering taking my life away and make the worst essential decision in my life. When I started going to high school, something changed. Not the others, it was my approach to bullying what was different, but in a good sense. My friends and I have decided to develop a mobile and web platform that enables anonymous reporting about all bad behavior in the school. From the little project, it became a big platform that helps students and even save human lives all around the world. You can find it right here: https://www.faceup.com/en-us/
In current time, I’m in senior year at High school. I’m happy because I’m no more being bullied and primarily, I’m helping others. I never could even imagine making something like that, but I did it! So, if you feel bad and low, let us know in FaceUp and we are sure we will help you!
Have a nice day,
Martina

Life gets better

I have often been bullied in school, and I was scared that someone would threaten me. It started in 5th grade when I was at a new school and I was so nervous. I tried to make new friends but I was getting teased for my height and people called me ugly. I also experienced depression and started to harm myself. I wanted to die. But something inside of me felt like those feelings were wrong. I was sad but I had to listen to my heart. I prayed about it and I felt better. At a bible camp, I felt so broken inside. I felt like there was no hope for me, but I found God and He helped me through everything that was happening in my life. I felt like I was cared for and that I was loved. One thing that I learned is that bullying is never the answer. If we can stop bullying then it will save someone and it can help someone know that they are loved and cared for. To anyone who has experienced bullying, it does get better you just have to block out the negativity and tell yourself you are worth something. Keep telling yourself don’t give up and it will make you one step closer to freedom.

When The Magic Ends

I’m not much of an outgoing type of person. I’m 17 and I still don’t know how to stick up for myself, and I deal with severe depression and I’m sure many others do too. I know I’m not the first to cry, the first to feel pain and the first to tell someone “I’m fine”. As you may or may not know bullying is an awful thing to experience. At the beginning of 3rd grade I was a happy little girl who was probably waaaay too obsessed with disney. I moved a lot due to my parents’ occupation so I never made any real friends and just did my own thing. When I moved to the state I am currently in around 7 years ago I was shy but excited to start 3rd grade. 1 year passed and I was still a positive little bean, then 4th would eventually change me forever. My dad was on a work trip in which would be 7 months long. I was heartbroken because I had to say goodbye once again to my father a couple of months after he already went on a trip. For months I would wait for him, counting the days down. Kids in my school took note of this, and began to say things about him being gone. One thing you should know is that I have always been a tiny girl, and I’m now finally comfortable with being short but back then people would hit me with the tether ball in the face, laugh, hold me so I couldn’t move and do it again. Over and over, they would through food at me, take my stuff and put it on a tall shelf. And it only got worse due to the fact that I don’t like to confront people. Eventually it died down with the help of my mom and we all went to different middle schools. Bullying is never something that’s ok or excusable. For years I excused this behavior of my fellow peers. Bullying doesn’t just happen in high school but it can happen at any point in your life. I have to go now but my point is that you will never be alone. And you are always appreciated.

Fake Friends

I was just starting Middle school, and I had the same friends as I did in the 5th grade. I thought those friend were really close and really good to me, but the more I got to know them the more I realized that they only associated with me because of my best friend who everyone loved and adored. They normally would treat me like trash when my best friend wasn’t around.