When I speak to the children I teach about bullying, often they believe it to be one incident where someone has been wrongly treated, most often, verbally, by others. Bullying, however, is regarded as repetitive intentional mistreatment or hurting of another person or group of people. This can be physically or verbally and can take place in person or online.
It is NEVER OKAY for anyone to be unkind to you or intentionally hurt you at any time!
I will let you into a secret about me…like thousands and thousands of children each day, I was also bullied at school. I was called all sorts of names and made fun of. Comments were made, day after day, about my ‘skinny body’. I was quite thin growing up; I was active and into sports and never really had any negative thoughts about my weight or considered it something I should worry about.
This person, my peer, THE BULLY, had no right to comment on how I looked. I used to laugh it off and pretend I wasn’t hurt, but the truth was, I was constantly embarrassed and VERY HURT. I never really spoke to an adult about this at the time and I’m not sure why. I had approachable, supportive teachers, but I suppose it was probably because I was afraid the bullying would get worse if I told. The name-calling finally started to lessen as we got older and, surprisingly, before we left primary school, we actually started to get on okay with each other.
Looking back, I didn’t handle the situation in the best way. I really should have spoken to someone I trusted. This period of bullying definitely has had an impact on me and is probably one of the reasons I was quite a timid young girl, with low self-esteem. No one has the right to taint or affect how you feel about yourself.
We hear and give lots of advice, as adults and teachers, to children at school about how best to handle situations where people are mean or unkind to them. The advice, I believe, as someone who has been a target of bullying, is the RIGHT ONE.
Do tell someone; someone you think will help you and stand up for you.
Don’t give another person the right to take away your self-esteem or affect how you feel about your AMAZING self.
If you have been involved in incidents of bullying yourself, us adults, or people who care about you, do understand there will be reasons why you got involved in this. You can make amends. You can say sorry and mean it. You are NOT a bad person. You can MAKE BETTER CHOICES.
Growing up is a very tricky time. DO share how you are feeling or confide in someone you trust to talk through things that are worrying you. REMEMBER: a problem shared IS a problem halved.
The three young girls in the image attached, known as the ‘Terrible Trio’ or Turner Triplets, attempt to bully Felicity in the story, but have a tough time trying, as they are up against strong characters like Jenny Jackson and Edna Evans.
It was important for me, as a writer, to include characters like the trio. Their purpose in the story is to show how bullying can impact others but how strong friendships can help overcome this. They are bullies but also bully each other. This is something I am sure is familiar to lots of young readers.
I wanted relatable characters and relatable scenarios in my first novel about Felicity. I want YOU, the readers, to not only enjoy my stories but to learn from them. I want you to LEARN that there are things in life you should not accept and that there are people like Jenny Jackson and Miss Green, who can help you, care for you and will do wonders for your self-esteem. ALWAYS remember what you deserve and accept NOTHING LESS.
