I'm 15 years old! my verbal bullying started in 6th grade. i love to dye my hair and wear bright clothes and get piercings. everytime i would dye my hair my family, YES FAMILY would cut me down about it. tell me i was a faggot because im a guy and i dye my hair.  it didnt matter what i did they would keep on. even my mom would do it. i dont have my dad in my life.. he never was. when me andmy mom get in fights she tells me no one wants me and my dad was ashamed of me and thats why he left.. then she says sorry afterward. i get called faggot, queer, bitch, dumbass, loser, nobody, loner, ignorant, idiot, fucker, pussy, pansy, exc. ..  my 9th grade year i got tired of it and told myself .. hunter you are you for you.. just because they say it doesnt mean that its true.. it still hurts me when people call me that because i dress "different" .. or i "dye" my hair. we are who we are. give it a rest. ive thought about hurting my self  before but then i think why should i kill my self over pathetic people.. that would make them happy. im a sophmore now and guess what .I STILL DYE MY HAIR, I STILL WEAR BRIGHT COLORED CLOTHES.but now more people accept me for who i am.. i have plenty of friends that accept me.. and yeah i still get called names but idc anymore..  i just care when my mom calls me things... that really hurts me. everyone needs to stand up for themselves.. you are who you are. dont try to be what everyone else wants you to be.. i didnt and im glad..but even though i still get called names by my on family... i try to ignore most of it anf yeah it still hurts alot but i dont let it get to me like it used to.  stand up foryourself . the person who helped me get throu this to was my cosuin/ sister jessica smith. she told me to be me for me not for anyone else and to ignore what they say. i love you jessie! it only takes 1 :)

Me and my brother were friends with everyone in the naborhood and you knew we would do boy stuff then mateo went into high school and everyone moved but they didnt like my brother and there New friend Jack didnt either so one daythey got into an arguement at my house and he triend to stab my brother and my brother hit him in the leg with the bat ......well he lied and told are old friends of the naborhood that he hit him in the head well a few day went by and we went to a party and they all jumped my brother and i wasnt there to do anything BUT this time the cops did do something they arrested him and hes in jail for it . and none of us talk about it anymore.

Unfortunately, her school was not as supportive as the school in the novel and four years after we learned of the bullying she left school and is finishing high school via virtual schooling. She shared her true story on the blog http://frominsidethe heart.wordpress.com. Today she is planning her future and working to overcome the failures of her former school. 

it all started in about 5th grade when people or shall i say bullies tormented me they would make me so sad and,mad ,and i started to take it out on my family and disbehave and it was to the point were  i would come home crying and so many suicidal thoughts went through my head ,but what did i do well i did what mist kids do i sucked it up like the pusy they all said i was and im Never The Same.

About two years ago when I was a sophomore in high school, I had a paper route. I would walk four miles each day but Sunday and wake up at 4:00 AM to go out and deliver. One day right after school, I was walking home from finishing my route. It was the day before Thanksgiving, the same night the first of 3 suicides and later one bone cancer loss took place. As I was walking in the cold, a red truck full of guys I didn't know slowed down next to me and decided to start throwing waterballoons at me. After I was soaked, they turned left at the corner we were on and parked across the street from me. They knew I was on the verge of crying, so they yelled "fat cunt" at me and drove away. When they were gone, I burst into tears and walked the rest of the way home. They went around the block to get s good look at their achievement and drove off. I wanted to kill myself because I'd had enough for one lifetime, but now I'm glad I'm still here. Thanks for reading.

I am 15. i am in 9th grade and am currently homeschooled. this is because i have endured torture in school every day. being hit, called horrible things, rumors spread about me, being jumped in the hall and getting cut up, food thrown at me in lunch, and the teachers never did a thing. i was alays the one to be repremanded when i take action and try to stand up for myself. they refured to change my class until i threatened that i would no longer attend the class. i tried to talk to the news, but the school wouldnt give permission to publish their name. ive run out of class crying and the teacher waited more than half an hour before finally telling another teacher to check on me. nobody ever listened to me. so i told my mom i was done and i didnt want to go back to school after boys throwing coins at me calling me a 5 cent hore.. she unenrolled me that day, and the school waited over a week before taking me out of their system, bringing my grades down from a's to f's due to my absences. the fight is still ongoing to spread the word of the torture kids suffer in this school..

Ever scence second grade ive been bluuied from hitting, saying i can be a cristian, being told i am not smart and cant think for my self. but i have spoke up every time but they continued to bully me ivetold teachers, my family, friends, principals, and my guidece counsler but still no justice.

My grandpa was my best friend.  In june he got diagnosed with stage four lung cancer and wasn't going to live for maybe a year or so.  I made a pledge that I would never wear makeup again, becuase he was giving up stuff he loved and I loved makeup.  When I went back to school I started to break out really bad with acne. I got made fun of everyday and my closest friends would talk about me behind my back.  One day I got so frustrated I put on makeup just so everyone would shutup, but then I realized the mistake I had made. My grandpa couldn't just cover up his cancer and make people happy.  I had to keep my promise to him so I wiped off my makeup and faced the school.  When people started finding out what I was doing people started supporting me.  I found an organization online called You Are Beautiful.  I still get looks because I don't wear makeup but it's for a good cause and people shouldn't bully someone because they look different.

It was 4th grade, I was the youngest in my grade, I loved my life, each day I would wake up, wanting to go to school. Then 1 day this girl just started to harass me, she hurt me PHYSICALLY, she stabbed me with a tack in my hand, it hurt, a lot. She laughed at me and so did everyone else, I was at a catholic school, who does that at a CATHOLIC school? Wasn't God or Jesus supposed to be their role model or something? When I went home i didn't say anything, I thought it was just a joke when she did it. The next day at school, both of my best friends had turned on me. 

Why? I don't know, they would call me names with my bully and laugh at me. What did I ever do to them? Again when I went home I didn't say anything, thinking that everything was going to be ok the next day. Nope, it got worse. During recess I would play 4 square with the other girls but, the problem was that my bully would play too. So when it was my turn to play and she was ace, she would say "Pac-man!" (Pac-man is when the Ace would chase you in the 4 square and tag you with the ball.) She would always try to get me out, but she never could, until one day she threw the ball at my face and I fell to the ground, backwards. It hurt and she would just laugh at me, when I cried she laughed even harder.

I didn't know what was happening so I did the same thing, I didn't tell anyone.  But, again and again, each day just got worse until I couldn't take it anymore, I finally told someone, my mom, who ended u telling my dad, who ended up telling the Principle, who ended up telling the parents of my bully and the bully herself.  I was happy, until the bullying started to get even worse than it already was. This time no one would talk to me, I sat alone at lunch, no one wanted to be my partner in class, no one would play with me at recess and each day my parents would ask me "how was school?" and the same reply was "Great!" with a fake smile on my face. Each day I would cry and cry and cry. An entire school year went by and I was in 5th grade, (this year my scholl was going to close down)The same routine followed, but this time I would come home with cuts and bruises on my knees and my parents would ask me "what happend?" and I would say the same thing " I fell."

Then I realized I was falling under depression, hurting myself, hating myself, wondering "What went wrong?" I had suicidal thoughts, thinking that my life would be easier that way, dead. No one would miss me. I needed and wanted help. I prayed to God trying to pick myself and my life up. One day I couldn't take it anymore, I had the worst day of my life, I thought my life couldn't get any worse that it already was. I tried, I tried so hard to be patient and smile, but I couldn't, I couldn't be patient anymore, I wanted to die, right now. I pretended everything was going to be ok. Then I tried to commit suicide, I took a knife when no one was home and held it against my chest. "No." I finally said out loud. I couldn't do this to myself. My parents would miss me too much, my sisters would cry for hours. I told my parents what was going on and I finally felt better. They asked me if they could tell the principle and I said no. This was my problem and I was going to fix it.

On the last day of school, before my school would be gone forever, I said to my bully, looked her straight in the eyes and said " Have fun spreading hate wherever you go, you made my life a living hell, you are a real bitch, so stay out of my life."

After that I felt amazing. My life got better after that. I love my new school and my new best friends. I picked myself up and felt great about starting a new life. 

I was bullied for 2 years and I don't want anyone to ever feel this way.

I can't really remember when I started being bullied. I know it was some time in elementary school but I didn't recognize it as such then. There was teasing, name calling, pushing, shunning, etc. but all the adults in my life just said it was "kids being kids" and we were all just trying to figure out who we were.

I guess I thought it would stop once I went to middle and high school but it didn't. In fact, it worsened. I have always been overweight and was even ridiculed by some of my family members for being so. I was compared to my thinner, sportier, more attractive brother ALL the time. In middle/high school, bullies would try to stuff me in my locker then laugh, point and call me fat and ugly when I wouldn't fit. I walked the halls of my school alone and scared. I suffered more from emotional, mental and verbal bullying than the physical. This made my situation easier to hide from my parents and the few school staff who would have done something. I spent most of my lunches and study halls in the nurse's office because I couldn't stomach being in the cafeteria, library or halls.

As I look back, I realize that I didn't really have any friends. There were a few students I hung out with but when I was being bullied they just sat there and didn't say or do anything. When I tried talking to them about it, they would change the subject because it made them uncomfortable. I think this is why I didn't keep friends for very long and haven't spoken to them in over 10 years.

I was severely depressed, contemplated suicide all through middle/high school, had a suicidal plan on a few occasions, overate to make myself feel better, had insomnia, didn't participate in anything, etc. My parents were too busy struggling with alcohol addiction and a rocky marriage to notice I was going through any of this. The few times I tried to tell them, or school staff, I was told I needed to stop being so wimpy and stand up to my bullies or that they didn't want to hear about it. I even had to apologize to one of my bullies once.

The only good thing about my middle/high school life were my grades. I was a straight A honor student and graduated in the top 5 of my class. I knew that a good education and college would be my way out of this teenage hell. I couldn't wait to go to college. I went out of state, lost 40 pounds, joined clubs, made friends, etc.

But then my roommates seemed to just stop liking me. They started to shun me (even in our dorm), threaten to physically harm me, destroyed some of my things, spread rumors about me on campus, etc. I had to involve the RA who told me I had to try harder to make amends and compromise our living arrangements. Eventually, I involved the Dean and was moved into a single dorm room. I was able to finish the rest of that year and then I transferred to a college close to home so that I could commute and not live on campus.

Today, I'm in my 30's, still struggling with depression, overeating and isolation. I started my career in human services about 8 years ago and love it. At this time, I'm working on obtaining a grant for the non-profit agency I work for so that I can start an anti-bullying/bullying prevention program for youth. I want to take my experiences and use them to make a difference.