When i was 8 years old and in the third grade i was bullied and verbally harassed on a daily basis. School was not easy for me. I would wake up every morning feeling sick to my stomach because i was so nervous about going.  i was diagnosed with ADHD in third grade which resulted in me being taken out of class at times so i could focus on certain tasks. That gave the bully's another excuse to taunt me. They would call me names, pull my hair etc. It wasnt until one day on the bus when i received hand written notes (which i still have) that anything was truly done. In the notes read : We hate you. We wish you were dead... etc...  As soon as i got home from school, i showed my mother the notes. i will never forget the look on my mothers face when she read them. She took my hand and together we went back to the school. My mother threw the notes on the principles desk and told her to do something about it. Nothing was done of course, but my mother and father being the most amazing two parents i could ever ask for, pulled me out of that school that very same day. To this day i still go to therapy... not because im not over what happened, but it does effect me everyday. In 8th grade, i made a documentary about bullying which was in a way very therapeutic for me. However, i still struggle with certain things in my life.  For example, I second guess myself all the time. Im not the most confident person, and at times i have a hard time letting people in. i am now 25 and have had 3 cosmetic surgeries to change the way i look. Even though i will never admit part of the reason why i have had these surgeries is because of what happened to me when i was younger, it is.  Its not the answer, but it did help my confidence. I am a work in progress... I live everyday learning and growing as a young woman and anything i can do to prevent bullying i will! For anyone out there who has or is being bullied.. You are NOT alone.. Speak up and tell someone. Love is Louder<3

Middle school and high school were the hardest times for me. Rumors started about me and middle school by a group of girls that I thought were my friends, turned out I was wrong. These rumors only grew which made my every day life more and more difficult. I lost all of my friends, and people treated me like I was worthless. No one would give me a chance, to show them that what people had said about me weren't true. My house was vandalized multiple times, I would get horrible letters and disgusting things sent to me in the mail, and put in my mail box. I would get harassed through texting and on the internent. No one would help me. I was called all sorts of names slut, cunt, bitch, I would get told to "go die" because I wasn't wanted on this earth anymore. I would avoid school and spent a lot of my time alone. I cried a lot, and caused self harm upon myself. I was also put into a hospital because I attempted suicide. I felt like no one wanted or need me around, and I just wanted everything to end. I'm so thankful for my mom in my times of need I truly believe she is the reason I am still alive today. The words hurt, and they tore me apart. Till this day I still don't have one close friend because I have such a guard up with people. But I believe everything works out for a reason. If I could get through it, you can get through it. I believe in you, and you need to get through it because you have people who do need and love you no matter what anyone says. You were put on this earth for a reason, don't let a bully take that away from you.

Hello. My name is Bethany. I'm almost 20 years old and can still be bullied. Since I was little, I haven't ever been the most popular girl. I was very tomboy-ish, which was okay for awhile. Then when you get into middle/high school, it's not okay anymore. Dyke. Faggot. These are the words you get yelled at you when you're different. I've attempted suicide twice. People in this world are terrible. Just listen to me. Ignore them. They are not better than you. Things will get better. You find people who accept you. I love you.

Nothing means more to me than my family and when I walked around a corner in my school and saw my older brother getting picked on, it infuriated me. I was 8 years old and my brother was 9. Now I'll be 17 on June 3rd and my brother just recently turned 18. My brother is my bestfriend and when he hurts, I hurt. My brother was never the skinniest kid on the block, nor was he the smartest or coolest, but God made him exactly the way he should be. When I turned that corner at school and saw 3 older boys pushing my brother and calling him fat, I knew I needed to say something before my brother did something that he would regret. (He's always been violent when someone disrespects him.) Immediately I shouted "Hey! What's y'alls problem? Stop pushing him around!" All 3 boys just laughed it off because hey, I was just a helpless little girl to them. My family has always said I'm way too mentally mature for my age, and it definitely showed that day. I stood right in front of the boys and told them that they had no right to disrespect my brother like that and that if there was a problem, they would have to take it up with an adult instead of handling the situation on their own. Eventually they got tired of me lecturing them about bullying and they left. If I wouldn't have stood up for my brother, there's a very real possibility that he would've gotten into a lot of trouble and probably hurt those boys. To this day I find myself standing up for my brother because people still think that bullying is the only way to get their point across to someone, or bullying is the only way they can feel in control of something. My brother doesn't know how to stand up for himself. He knows how to fight. If I have to spend everyday of the rest of my life standing up for my brother, then so be it. I would never let him be subjected to bullying. Nobody deserves to be bullied, so I stood up for him.

I always feel like the odd one out, mt friends all tall and skinny or they were just popular. I am always that kid that never got anything the stupid one, the dumbass, the one people hung out with because they felt bad for me. My bestfriend, we always said we'd never change, we were inseparable. Then the first year of Junior high came along we weren't in the same class anymore we started drifting apart and thats mostly when it started. He was part of the popular's. He turned against me, and then started talking about me behind my back. At first i brushed it off like i didnt care but then in eighth grade, it got worse. he would just upfront say it, he didnt hold back. He used what he knew against me. He knew everything. I was fine as long as it was at school, but then I got home, my mom's a nut job, and as soon as I dont the slightest thing wrong she starts talking about how much of a piece of garbage I am and that ill result in nothing youre just a fat nothing.. My sisters dont hold back either its constant are you f*****g retarded or something god, youre so stupid. Its constant torment i get at home. A school things are getting better, he still knows everything i cant hide anything from him, like the fact that I cut a lot the bruises i get from my mom the depression that goes on the countless torment that replays in my head. I try to stand out and make a difference, but it all come with time.

I was never a victim of physical harm. I was never hit, kicked, or attacked. The only harm inflicted upon me was done so by myself. 
Since 2nd grade, I've been avoided. I'm weird, I scare people, I'm the bug girl. I grew up never learning how to approach people, or make friends, or stand up for myself. Instead I just faded into the background and ignored people, isolated myself, stayed in my room after school instead of going out. I ignored the names, but they still hurt. I ignored the rumors, but still heard them. People would talk about me, even if I was right there, so I walked away. I didn't have support at home, so I turned to the internet. So at 12, I turned to a dating site to find support or acceptance, or even just someone to talk to. So at 13, the only people I hung out with were men 20-25, because the kids at school were betting on whether or not I had a penis. Because no matter what I did I never lived up to their standards, no matter how much I copied them, or did what they told me to. 

And now at 16, I'm still avoided and ignored, but I care less. I still don't know how to approach people and make friends, but I have no desire for friendship. But I will not tolerate any harm, either physical or emotional, being done to myself or anyone else. I will never allow my children to go through what I did, because I will be there for them, and I will teach them right and wrong. And if they ever have problems, I will never make them feel like they are at fault. Instead, I will sympathize. I will be a good listener, and I will do everything I can to help them. And I'm asking all of the parents out there to do the same. 

Hello. I am a quiet person. Bullied by my aunts, cousins, and the children in school, I always assumed that I was unlovable and invisible. So I became quiet. When people tried to speak with me, I jammed up and couldn't get out a proper sentence. To deal with things, I turned to art. 

Art as a medium, is one of the most important tools of the human soul. It has the ability to talk and make us feel without saying a word. It tells us something about ourselves, as an individual and as a race of human beings. 

This year I turned 18, and became an 'adult', as if the passage into the adult world is at all controlled by age, I started to seriously think about my place in the world, as a human being. That same thought, that I had no place, kept creeping back. But finally, when college is looming around the corner, when I have royally messed everything up and feel like I am going nowhere, I finally understand. 

Life is fucking tough. I made it through my 18 years because of my art, and because I believe in a world that is painfully real, but exciting. When no one else would listen, my art listened and it spoke. Art is projecting the human soul to a person who needs it. Therefore every human being is an artist at heart. Your story has touched and inspired me. And I'd like to pass that on now. 

In short, keep strong, speak out, try art. 

Some reading and viewing suggestions: 

The Perks of Being a Wallflower, Freedom Writers (the book is brilliant), The Heidi Chronicles (a play), and Therumpus.net if you are old enough 

Hi Im Anna. Almost everyday at school I get called a bitch or a whore. I don't really fit in much. I like food so I always have snacks in my pocket and people call me a fatass. I'm not fat but people make me feel like it. The kids hurt me so bad that I started cutting. I haven't for a while though. I have depression now and it's hard for me to get up in the morning and go to school because I know I'm just going to get hurt. I know it probably doesn't seem bad but it's still hard for me. 

I was bullied in school. I have ADHD and Aspergers, but back then people didn't really know about that... I got diagnosed later on, as an adult... so basically people just thought I was weird and didn't fit in. I was kind of immature for my age in some ways... I wasn't into fashion, makeup, boys, etc, at the age of 10. I had this crazy, wild curly hair that was super frizzy... it didn't look like nice curls, but just a ball of frizz. So kids would make fun of me for all of that. They'd gather around me on the playground and say things like, "Don't you ever brush your hair?" or "Do you think you're pretty?" 

In junior high it got worse. There were a couple of girls who made it their life's mission to torment me. Gym class was the worst because it was unstructured and not supervised too well, so they had lots of opportunities. The weird thing is I don't really remember a lot of it anymore... I remember feeling really upset, crying every day, and actually praying that something horrible would happen to those girls, even that they'd die, so I wouldn't have to be around them at school. They never physically bullied me... it was all verbal and emotional. I do remember one time some girls sprayed me with deodorant in the locker room. I hated school. The worst was the feeling of helplessness. The teachers knew, and some expressed sympathy, but nobody did anything about it. One time an art teacher did keep some kids after class and talked to them about bullying me, but they played innocent and said they had just been joking around. My parents knew about it but didn't do anything. There was this feeling of being FORCED to go to a place every day where I'd have to endure being tortured, and I couldn't do anything or get away. All through junior high school I got wicked headaches and stomachaches and had trouble sleeping, because I was so stressed out. 

In high school it really died down. I wasn't really in classes with any of the kids who had tormented me for the past four years. But by then I had lost hope of ever having friends. I'd always lacked social skills, and now I didn't even really bother to try... I was just sort of in the background. I learned to just be quiet so nobody would notice me or bother me. Later on in high school I went another route and started hanging out with the stoner kids... although I didn't smoke. They seemed more accepting of me than the other kids were, for some reason. 

As an adult, I want to do whatever I can to stop today's kids from going through this. With social media, and more violence around us, it seems to be getting worse instead of better. Today's kids are driving each other to suicide! I feel like there should be a way to save kids from that. 

when i was a kid (a long time ago like 23years ago haha!!) we all hung out together we were the "in" crowd so to speak. i was the main person as id bring everyone together. but only ti have a giggle a laugh n honestly it was always with me ya know cos id laugh at maself my m8s wd.... then i noticed how my m8s were laughing well taking the liss lutta her namewhich was 'nina' ? nice name? but they started todo like a siren sound neeeenaaaar ndeenaar!! etc etcetc.. on one dsy id hsd enough of all this she was a quiet girl n was an individual n i walked home with her one  afternoon from schkol n i told her to STSND UPTO WHOEVER THEY ARE N THAT I WKULD STICK BY HER... anyway few days later she had it same old shit neenar neenaar n she shkuted fuck off! n grow up... n as i wasooking at her wigh admirat