Daily Times

Bullying is one’s aggressive behaviour towards others that includes abusive language, and even physical abuse in some cases around the world. It is not a part of any culture or religion. No one teaches anyone to bully someone; in fact, several anti-bullying campaigns are being run around the world.

It’s not something small or something that can be ignored or should be. Bullying is a serious issue that has become very common amongst young children of school level, unfortunately. Therefore, the damage it causes to a kid’s self-esteem and personality can lead him to self–harm, depression and develop psychic problems. That’s not it, there is a lot more. But we need to tell the kids, or future generation that how they can overcome and face such situations. We need to teach the people who bully to be a better and kind to others.

A well-known Hollywood celebrity, Kylie Jenner, who is one of the famous Kardashian sisters, has started an anti-bullying campaign named “I am more than that” for such people. From which, we get to know the stories of numerous people who got bullied and made their way out to show us that they are more than that.

Lizzie Velasquez is a 26-year-old woman who is suffering from a rare congenital disease, and less than 20 people in the whole world suffer from it. Someone posted her video on YouTube when she was only 17-year old as “World’s ugliest woman”. Not only this, but she has gone through bullying all her life because her body doesn’t produce fat, she has almost 0 per cent fat in her body which made her weigh less than normal ever since. She has not let all this come in her way and she is a motivational speaker. “Most importantly I try to convey that all you need to behfdhave is a brave heart to accomplish whatever you want to achieve. Let the negative build you up instead of knocking you down. You are enough no matter what; you were put on this earth for a reason,” she says.

Avery Ford is a filmmaker and entrepreneur born with Strabismus, a disease in which both eyes are not aligned properly. He can’t even see from his left eye. “I went through most of my life feeling ashamed of how I looked. It wasn’t until my late twenties that I learned to love myself just as I am. No one is perfect. We all have things that we would like to change about ourselves, but remember this – because you are here, you are worthy of love, happiness and human dignity,” he speaks of his life’s journey.

Erica Schenk is a curvy model, a career she first pursued at the age of 14. She has become very famous recently after since she was featured on the cover of a fitness magazine while she is a plus size. She never let haters stop her to be a model. It was her dream and she achieved it despite of the fact the she was once overweight. Her photos convey a positive and beautiful message that how negativity can be eliminated with positivity. “I think the most important thing people need to keep in mind is to learn how to be your best friend. A lot of people will come and go in your life but they can never do as much for you as you can do for yourself.”

We are obsessed with Em Ford, a retired model and a beauty blogger who does wonders with makeup. She named her blog “My pale skin” after being hated and abused horribly on social media. The horrible thing first happened when she posted her picture without any makeup on a social website. She told her followers, “I never had acne when I was a teenager and then at the end of 2014 it just happened. That’s the crazy thing about acne… it doesn’t discriminate on who you are (old, young, black, white, rich, poor).”

People started to post millions of negative comments and she has been bullied ever since. Her followers told her that they can’t stand her bare face and are going to un-follow her right away. After all this hate coming from her own beloved followers, Em made a very powerful video highlighting the negative comments she received on her social media after the makeup-less selfies. The video racked up eight million views in the first week and has now been viewed over 15 million times. Em’s biggest advice is, “Make friends with the person you see in the mirror because that will change your life. It’s really difficult to do and it’s going to take longer than 2 or 3 days… but once you do it will change your life.”

Renee DuShane is a beautiful 21-year-old female college student and she is suffering from Pfieffer syndrome by birth. Renee told that, “It is a genetic disorder where the bones in my face don’t really know how to fuse correctly so part of my jaw is really small. I had to have surgery when I was born so that my brain could grow.” She is super intelligent and strong girl. “I went to school with all the same kids all the way through high school. Right around senior year, I started getting very anxious about having to explain my condition to all of the new people I would meet in college. I started going on Tumblr (social website) and saw lots of profiles of positive, confident people and inspired me to share my pictures.” “It’s so hard to keep myself from responding to the negative comments, even harder is keeping my friends from getting angry.” She also got a tattoo of her motto “Stay Strong, Always Love”.

The writer is a member of staff.