Anti Bullying Blog Week(Day 7) - FYIC Guest Post

Siobhan Curham is one of my favourite UKYA authors; and I have so much respect for the fact she has willingly shared her experiences of bullying, as well as writing a brilliant beat-bullying guide. You can download the novel, Finding Your Inner Cherokee, for FREE by clicking THIS link. I did give it 5 stars on Goodreads...

Anyway, here's a Guest Post by Siobhan herself where you can learn a lot more about FYIC!
 
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I begin my e-book by talking about the four basic truths about being bullied. These are four truths I wish I’d known and believed back when I was being bullied.  

1. You are not alone 
2. What is happening is not your fault  
3. You have nothing to feel embarrassed about 
4. It will stop and your life will get better 

In this guest post I’d like to focus on TRUTH NUMBER ONE: You are not alone. 

According to UK government figures, 46.8% of young people will be bullied at some point and last year, 38.4% of young people were cyber-bullied. If you are being bullied, you definitely aren’t alone.  The trouble is, facts and figures aren’t much consolation when you’re too scared to go online, or filled with dread at the thought of going to school. So what if almost half of all young people will be bullied at some point? That fact doesn’t stop your pain. But it can go some way to easing it. Let me show you how.  

When I was being bullied I felt so alone. It was as if my world had shrunk right down until all it consisted of was me and my bully, because that’s all I thought about – all of the time. Even when I wasn’t anywhere near him, he still haunted my thoughts.  

 

This is what happens when you’re being bullied. Even when you aren’t anywhere near your bully you can become eaten up with fear, wondering what they’re going to do next. And so you stop thinking about other things – your friends, your family, the things you enjoy doing – and your world becomes a much smaller place. You feel as if you’re the only one going through this. You feel as if everyone else is having a great time. You can’t remember the last time you laughed and really meant it. You can’t remember the last time you woke up and didn’t instantly get that horrible sinking feeling. You can’t remember the last time you went to bed and fell straight into a deep and contented sleep. You feel all alone in your pain. 
 

 

But that fact is, you’re not alone, and if you’re being bullied I want you to see that fact as a tiny seed of hope. It’s the seed of hope that your long-term happiness will grow from. Many, many other people have experienced the pain of bullying. And many, many people have got through it and gone on to lead really happy and exciting lives. Here are just a few of them: Emma Watson, Daniel Radcliffe, Robert Pattinson, Kristen Stewart, Sandra Bullock, Tom Cruise, Kate Middeton, Prince Harry, Kate Winslet,  Lady Gaga, Tyra Banks, Rihanna, Taylor Swift, Justin Timberlake and Bill Clinton. 

The people in the above list overcame their bullying and went on to become mega successful actors, singers, artists and even the President of America! They all must have had moments when they just wanted to give up, or felt like there would never be an end to their suffering. But there was, and they’ve gone on to achieve amazing things since. 

 

In Finding Your Inner Cherokee I regularly share what I call power tweets. A power tweet is a statement that, like a tweet, has 140 characters or less, and packs a powerful punch. If you are being bullied and feeling all alone, write down the following power tweet and keep it somewhere you’ll see it regularly as a reminder: 

 

“Other people have got through this – and I will too.” 

 

You will, trust me. Although it might seem really hard to believe right now, what you are going through can actually end up making you a stronger, wiser person and help you lead a richer, more interesting life.  
 

And I am living proof of this truth.

Thank you so much to Siobhan for this snippet from FYIC. I can't tell you how much of a shock it was for me to hear people like Kristen Stewart and Emma Watson were bullied. I mean, they are unbelievably talented and so pretty!