With summer break slowly coming to an end, you might be getting anxious about the upcoming school year. And for those who are victims of bullies, the first day of school can be particularly frightening. According to StopBullying.gov, over 70 percent of young people say they’ve seen bullying in their schools, and almost 30 percent of U.S students in grades 6-12 have experienced bullying.
From calling names over social media to ganging up on someone at the playground, bullying takes many different forms. While some situations are easier to identify than others, any type of bullying is not OK. Here, 8 girls share their shocking experiences with bullying. For more information about dealing with a bully, check out this article.
“I got made fun of for being fat in elementary, middle, and even high school. People would always go out of their way to tell me how fat I was and how unattractive that made me, especially in comparison to other girls. My nickname in third through fifth grade was ‘sumo wrestler,’ and once a boy drew a sumo wrestler on the blackboard and labeled it with my name. Even today, objectively knowing I am a pretty small person, I always feel fat. I’m working to unlearn harmful beauty standards and body dysmorphia, but years of bullying means I get triggered in the most unexpected ways, like when I’m at the beach or when a fat girl is made fun of in a movie.” — Amy, 22
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“My whole life I’ve had a speech impediment where my ‘R’s sound funny, but it wasn’t until middle school when I started getting bullied about it. My best friend’s name was Sarah and mean girls would make fun of the way I said her name. Fast forward to now, we’re all seniors in high school. To this day my friends will still poke fun at my speech, and they don’t know how badly it hurts.” — Ashley, 18
“I was fresh off of moving to a new town and entering my freshman year in a high school where I knew nobody. Nobody likes ‘fresh meat,’ especially girls. That first week I introduced myself in every class — so people would at least know my name — which severely backfired during gym. A guy started talking to me and the whole time, these two girls were whispering to each other while looking directly at me. I later found out that the boy was dating one of the girls. The girls spread rumors that I was a slut and I was hearing how I hooked up with all these boys after the first week. Mind you, I had never met any of the guys I had apparently hooked up with. So I had to pretty much start from negative scratch to build a reputation I actually liked for myself while everyone else was calling me a slut for unknowingly talking to someone else’s boyfriend." — Elle, 22
“One time, my freshman year of high school, I was wearing weird Nike sneakers. This girl who hated and bullied me walked into the bathroom, saw my shoes, and said, ‘Oh my god, I love your shoes.’ She then walked out and I kid you not, it was like Regina George in Mean Girls scene where she compliments the skirt and then when the girl walks away, she says, ‘That’s the ugliest effing skirt I’ve ever seen.’” — Mandy, 23
“I’ve always been super flat-chested and I’m still totally traumatized by something that happened in seventh grade. These two guys came up to me and asked if they could call me stingray ‘because you’re really flat.’ I’m pretty sure the name continued for the rest of that school year.” — Caroline, 22
“Ever since first grade, my three best friends and I were a super tight clique. In the fifth grade, another girl tried to slide into the friendship. We were pretty nice to her face, but we didn’t want her to be part of the group, so we devised a strategy that summer. While I was on vacation with my family, my other three friends acted close to her and let her be the temporary fourth member. When I got back, one of my friends placed a secret three-way call with me and the girl. I would stay silent on the line, while my friend would encourage the girl to say mean things about me, and then I would reveal that I was on the phone too, and she could never be our friend now. I’m pretty sure we got the idea from Mean Girls. My friends and I got in trouble for bullying after the girl’s mom called our moms crying. I still feel horrible about how mean and cliquey we were, but I definitely learned my lesson and never acted that way again.” — Amelia, 22
“My so-called ‘friends’ in middle school used to call me Samara. Yes, the dead demon girl in The Ring. Apparently, I looked like her!” — Stephanie, 22
“I walked into my first driver's ed class and a popular (and let’s be honest, hot) boy in the grade above me was in my class. I was assigned to sit at his table. For weeks we as a table collectively chatted and finally made plans to hang out after drivers ed, as a group. Everyday the hot boy had his girlfriend pick him up from class — she already had her license and a car. The day we all decided to hang out after class we went to his house. She wasn’t invited but he of course clued her in. But for some reason, she only heard my name in the group hangout and was convinced that I was hanging out with him one-on-one. From that day on, she trolled me and would say ‘ew’ to my face whenever she passed me in the halls, even if she or I was with friends. Finally one day I screamed ‘ew’ back in her face while she was with her friends in the halls. She yelled back, ‘Are you serious?’ and I said, ‘Yes, I am,’ She and her group looked at me and kept walking. She never said it again.” — Alexandria, 22
Yerin Kim is the Assistant Snapchat Editor at Seventeen.com. Follow her on Twitter and Instagram!
Yerin Kim is the Assistant Editor for Snapchat Discover at Seventeen, covering beauty, sex & health, lifestyle, and entertainment. Originally from New Jersey but raised in Seoul, she is a proud Syracuse grad who loves fluffy puppies and a good Instagram opp. Follow her on Twitter and Instagram!
