Hi! My name is Ashley. When I was in about 4th grade I started getting a few zits... Eventually, that turned into acne. I got teased a lot because of it, I still get teased about it today. Everyday, when I'm at school I get called these terrible names. Ugly, Fat, Bitch, etc. Why do people have to be so mean? I never did anything to them. Being bullied sucks, that's why I am standing up for myself and everyone else that gets bullied. I hope all of you guys know that you aren't alone, and never will be alone. Everything happens for a reason. People who get bullied are so much stronger and so much better then the bullies. Always remember that! You're never alone and you're always loved!! I love all of you <3

My name is Bee, I'm twenty. I was born with a condition known as cerebral palsy. There's a home video of me and my twin sister, who has something called hydrocephalus in our first home, talking to our dad on the other side of the camera. "It's your first day at school girls." We nod and give tentative smiles, holding each other's hand. "Belinda, are you going to look after your sister?" I nod and put my arm round my sister. "I'm going to look after Niomi and make sure she doesn't fall over." Is this scripted? I can smile now because I know I take my job as protector very seriously. I have done since I was five years old.

In our first two primary schools, I don't remember suffering much in terms of bullying. We lived in small towns with tiny schools - in my year five class, there were only ten of us in our year group. I think that being the only set of twins for about five miles made us special - and the fact that we had a special support worker and had special desks and seat cushions only made us more special. Everyone loved us and it was great. In 2003 we moved house again - after spending five/six years in our small, loving town, we didn't take the change very well. About the only thing we were looking forward to was the prospect of having our own rooms.

The first day of our new school rolled around and it was April 1st. A bit ridiculous. We were starting a new school half way through the year and in our final year of primary, too. Niomi and me were in different classes, but we didn't know that until we got there. I remember being sat with a group of girls who stared at me like I was an alien. It was the first time I'd been on my own for anything and I didn't like it. The girls made fun of me for not wanting to share my work or laugh about a girl no one liked who sat in the corner on her own. I remember trying to befriend that same girl and hearing them talk about me behind my back.

When we finished primary school, there was only a few of us going to one secondary school - my few friends were going to the bigger high school that was closer to home. We waited for the bus with our friend from primary and her older brother - in brand new uniforms and matching big hulking Um-bro bags. We sat at the front of the bus together and things went bad from there. 

I was in P.E and one of the girls saw me take my leg out of my splint. My left leg had to be put in a corrective splint to help fix my walking. It had a hinge at the heel which made a distinctive sucking noise when I walked, as well as meaning I needed special shoes making for me. It was never the girls who bullied me, at least not the ones I knew enough. But the boys were worse. They started calling me and my sister 'spaz' and 'derwen' (Derwen College was a nearby residential college for people with physical and mental disabilities). There were two boys in particular who were on our bus. They sat behind us and kicked the back of our seats relentlessly and talked loudly about us, about derwens and how they'd been laughing about these fucking spazzes in class etc. We stared straight ahead and ignored it. Our parents couldn't make it better, even though they tried - it was easier to target me though because I didn't need the support in high school; my sister was protected with a more or less constant adult presence. She was also in different classes to me. I had friends though, so I managed to ignore it.

At the beginning of 2008, I wanted to get my hair cut short. Immediately people called me a lesbian. I tried to laugh it off, but it hurt. I didn't think about the fact it was true, because I didn't know it myself at the time. It hurt more because they stereotype you - short hair doesn't make you a lesbian. I've never seen the importance of 'coming out.' I class myself as pansexual, I've recently come out of a long relationship with an American girl. I didn't refute their claims, but then people who I was friends with starting wondering. I said nothing about my orientation or my disability when I went to sixth form - I'd learnt my lesson. If people asked, I would tell them. I didn't have to wear my corrective footwear but there was no uniform. I still have short hair and tend to have quite an androgynous style of dressing and I don't wear makeup. In my experience, the older you get, the more independent you get, the easier it gets. I met Marcus in my first year of high school. He was dared to sit next to me - he claims now it was the best decision he ever made. We've been friends nearly ten years, and he never came out either, but I think my relationship troubles helped him understand that it didn't matter. You don't have to make a huge deal out of these things. I love my best friend - he's stuck with me through everything. We live together now. I'll stick by him no matter what. You'll find someone who makes your life better.  

Well im not always comfortable talking about my story because it's such a bad memory. Well here I go ... it was my first day in sixth grade my first few months were great until about January when everyone started calling me annoying or useless or nothing . As everyone does they tell there parents nothing happened in school but everything happend around February someone told me a Facebook page was created "I hate Haley Perez club was created... It was a club with 7 members one being my friend :( apparently her friend hacked the profile and added her without permisson.... at first I thought it was a joke and that it wasn't real but it was and I transferred schools and everyone at my old school were concerned at first but then in seventh grade I would come home crying because of names I was called fat nose clown nose ugly worthless nobody likes you your uglier than everyone :( the teacher we had didn't understand or know what to do about it everything was complicated I didn't do self harm even though it was an option but I stayed strong 

My name is Marie, and I am 38 years old. Thirty years ago my family moved back to Ohio from Idaho, landing me in a new school in the middle of the school year. It was 3rd grade, and I was as awkward looking as ever, add to that my mother's insistence that I read before even entering kindergarten, and I was way smarter than a fifth grader...in third grade. I was 'weird' with a name nobody could pronounce or spell. I was new. And I was ostracized - not just that year but for every year after. Even when new kids came to our school district, I was still treated like the new girl. In high school I was deemed a 'dyke', a 'slut', and a 'n***** lover' after dating the one and only person of color in our school. I don't ever remember feeling suicidal, but I remember feeling lonely, lost, and completely unworthy. I felt like I was nothing, and that feeling of nothingness lasted until I had my first child, six years after graduation.

About five years ago, after a my divorce, I knew that I had to go back to college if I ever wanted to be self-sufficient. I labored over a major - not sure what was the best fit. I thought about the things I had done in my life. What have I done that I want to do more of, like, for the rest of my life?! Recalling the horrible memories of middle and high school, I realized I had to go back. I had to go back and seek out the girls like me with the funny names and not so perfect hair. The kids who were the outcasts, my people. And in less than nine months I will graduate with a degree in middle childhood education. I will be a middle school teacher, and I will once again enter into the underworld of my past. But it's different this time. Now I have some power, some knowledge, and some empathy. I have embraced multi-cultural education as the norm, and I KNOW I can make a difference. I know I can instill in my students understanding, compassion, and love. I have to. I owe it to my 13-year-old self.

In the midst of my schooling endeavors has been my own son's struggle to fit in at the same school district, dealing with the offspring of my bullies who also bully him. But that is his story to tell. It is up to him to tell the world about the suicidal thoughts running through his head, the torture that he feels each day as an LGBTQ middle schooler, and I hope that he can tell it to his children one day - as a survivor.

Hi my name is Makalie. I grew up in a normal family. I always had a smile on my face and all I wanted was to be happy. It all started in 3rd grade, when the people I thought were my friends turned on me. From there on out I was made fun of for my weight, skin color, the way i dressed, any imperfection they could find. It got so bad I refused to go to school, missing 2 to 3 days a week. In 5th grade I was pointed out for being the fattest girl in school. I started to eat less and less. I tried so hard to fit in, but nothing seemed to work. I thought I could have a fresh start in middle school.. I was wrong. It just got worse. Girls got nastier. Boys got ruder. I was called so many names that now they have no affect on me. And I was told I was a waste of space. I'd come home crying everyday. Just wanted to sleep and never wake up. With all of this happening around me I became distant with my family. I started shutting out everyone in my life, until it was just me and my thoughts. One day I came so close to killing my self. Right before I was about to I looked in the mirror and a thought went through my head, 'I'm here for a purpose. I just haven't found that purpose yet.' I got help and now I am on the right track now. I realized that we all go through this for a reason. Going through this made me a lot stronger. You have a purpose. And you are always loved. <3

My name is Gerald Ramirez. I am 20 years old and it's only been 2 years that I accept I am worth it. Since I was younger I have always been the outcast. In elementary school the people I called friends would shun me cause I was weird. I would be told numerous times by people why couldn't I be normal. For years I believed it. I could never get away from bullying. At home my family wasn't able to see the world the way I see it so we would argue and I was told things that no child should ever hear. In high school it all just built up and I broke down. I was not able to walk into certain classes without just being called a freak. I was bullied in spanish just because I was different. I made some friends who when people bullied me they would just tell me the meanest things. For a long time I believed it. I told myself I was worthless, that I was nothing to no one and that I was better of gone. I started to self-harm for a couple of years, I became numb to so many things that harming myself was the only thing that made me feel like I was not a hollow shell, but in fact a person. It all changed though. This amazing man, this amazing teacher he helped me out, he changed my life. I heard stories of how teachers never helped so I never asked for help, even when he was my teacher and got bullied in his class I just sat quiet and took it all. He turned that all around though. He told me to be myself, he told me that who I am was what made me worth it. He made me believe in myself when I needed it the most. Maybe some teachers do look the other way but I'm glad he didn't because if he did I don't know where I would be today. I can never thank him enough for what he did. He told me to stand against my bullies not with hate but with confidence, and that's what I did, that's what I still do. It's the hardest lesson to learn when you're whole life you're made feel like you're not worth it, but trust me you are. We all are. And we should all be around to spread that message. We are worth it and we are all equal.

I never grew up like many children do. I was adopted by Caucasian parents, and raised in an American setting. I knew I was different then many children around me; their parents being the same skin color, same face, maybe the same nose as their dad or the same eye color as their mom. Either way they looked similar. I don't think as a child I was truly aware of this, I loved my parents unconditionally and I still do to this day. It started when people were startled when I pointed out my mom or my dad to them. They didn't know what to expect. They were truly ignorant, and people still are to this day. Teachers, other parents, and children are still shocked when I introduce them to my mom or my dad because of our skin color. People could never look past that. It hurt, because I never considered the skin color a big deal; they were my parents, skin color or not they still loved me and I still loved them.

I was a very short, thin girl. I wore glasses and hand-me-down's from family members. I was never really one to care what I looked like, whether it fit me or not, I was very glad to have clothes. People would criticize my glasses, call me 4 eyes and nerd. At such a young age it was devastating. It didn't end there, I was called out for being Asian. Chinese, Chink, Slit-eyed and more. It was a never ending process of hatred. I never understood why. In middle school I went to a lower class school where children of less then decent backgrounds went to. I was constantly bullied, people would push me, tell me how pathetic I was, how ugly I was, that I was a teacher's pet, that I was anorexic, that I should kill myself. That was also never ending, I was still naive but without my friends to support every step I took I most likely wouldn't have even made it through the first year of middle school. I then switched to a better school, I was not bullied as often, I made good friends and I learned to gain a little bit more confidence in myself. I do however believe middle school was a very awkward stage in my life. No one completely understood me, I didn't understand myself and I don't think my parents understood what was happening in my life at that time.

It wasn't until high school that I truly discovered the meanings of what I was going through, how I felt, my life, my family, school, everything. People would still tell me to eat more, get plastic surgery because my breasts were too small and many other hurtful things. I would miss countless days of school to stay at home and sleep. I would cry myself to sleep. I did self-harm (cutting and burning) I have scars which have faded immensely. I have tried to kill myself by overdosing on medication and cutting an artery. I went to a Psychiatric Ward for Children for one week because of the countless encounters of self-harm and suicidal tendencies during my junior year of high school. I went to therapy as well during my sophomore year of high school. These are places I never want to see people go to, it breaks my heart to know that children younger then me, older and adults still have these feelings of depression and harming themselves. It is truly upsetting.

Though it may not sound as bad as others, it is still heart-breaking. To this day people comment about my small breasts, small butt, flat face, slits for eyes, small nose, white parents and the list goes on and on. It's a never ending cycle of pure hatred whether it is meant or not. I don't know if children, adults and schools understand how hard it is to live with something like that. Not many people can understand the hardships of being adopted. They shrug it off like it's no big deal, but it is a big deal. People you don't know take you in as their child, love you, care for you, feed you and give you shelter. They take their time to love a child they didn't birth. It is truly a touching sensation to know that they are there for you every step of the way, birth parents or adopted parents they will always love their child.

I am currently about to start my Senior year (2013-2014) at high school. I am 16 years old. My name is Megan. I live in Denver, Colorado. I currently model and I am a lot taller then I was. I plan on attending college and gaining a degree in Engineering. I'm a very proud adopted Korean-American and I would not change the world for that.

I am now 39.  I am educated and have a professional life and live my life with honor and meaning.  I am still healing and only now understanding how severe the impact of bullying was on my life from the ages of 10-14.  In addition my father was a very respected and soft spoken wealthy business man in Central Vermont, but behind closed doors he was a bully.  A dirty little secret only my mother and I knew about.  I was severely physically and emotionally abused at Barre Town, Vermont Elementary school in the mid to late 1980s, and nothing was done about it.   My story would have made a center piece in "Bully",  it is one of the most severe bully stories I have heard.  Yet trauma is measured by the individual and not by the event, trauma is trauma...IE bullying creates complex post traumatic stress disorder no matter the story!!  I will post my entire story soon when I have time.  Meanwhile I thank the film makers and brave brave children who let us see their story.  And the adults (heros) who have stood up to protect children from what I believe is on par with  child sex abuse, and physical child abuse.  Because the results are the same on a person as they try to live normal lives after being abused!  I made a small donation today to this project.  If you can, please do!

I was overwight when i was younger, girls made fun of me and had me come over to their house and tell me i has fat. That is when i started cutting, and i started to starve myself, I have done three atempts to kill myself when i was younger. People noticed and i got help. And i know who my REAL friends are and we are really close. I am being helped and i am a stronger person today. Thank you for reading my story<3