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5 Celebs Who Overcame Their Bullies

Oh snap.

Emily Hooley
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Wednesday, November 15, 2017 - 15:34

Sunday night dread, cold sweats at the school gates, and sickening panic every time your phone vibrates. The trauma of bullying can kill your self-esteem and make you feel completely isolated. 

This week is Anti-Bullying Week, and we’re here to show you that if you’re feeling victimised, you aren’t alone, and there’s ALWAYS light at the end of the tunnel.

Check out Talulah-Eve's top tips for online bullying...

Even though it can sometimes feel like the bullying will never end, these celebs prove that there is life after bullying, and that it’s probs going to be pretty awesome. 

DEMI LOVATO

“One day, this girl this girl who was popular started saying ‘Demi should kill herself. She should slit her wrists.’ It resulted in a suicide petition that got passed around and she had other classmates sign it.” – Simply Complicated

If there’s one thing we’ve learned from Demi’s new doc ‘Simply Complicated’ (apart from the fact that she is the literal Queen of this Earth), it’s that being a victim of bullying when you’re young won’t hold you back from basically conquering the universe.

Demi’s bullying experience at school sounded horrible – kids would laugh at her demos, shout at her, write hate petitions – and she’s been pretty outspoken about its impact on her mental health.

Since becoming a global success story, Demi's thrown herself into anti-bullying campaigns. She was named ambassador of Mean Stinks, an anti-bulllying campaign with Secret aiming to end girl-on-girl bullying, she was a spokeswoman for the anti-bullying organisation PACER, and she just generally NEVER fails to speak up against hate, always promoting kindness and acceptance in its place. Yaas Demi.

SOLANGE

“When you go out into the world feeling confident in who you are and what you reflect, young folks will call you names and grown folks will call you names. It’s ok. One day you will name yourself, and that name will belong to you. It will not be the ones they ordained: “crazy, ugly, attention-seeking, weirdo.” – Teen Vogue

You’d think that SOLANGE KNOWLES of all people would escape torment at school, but when she wrote a powerful letter to her younger self in Teen Vogue in May, she recalled feeling victimised.

She continued that she even gets bullied as an adult too. “I really hate to tell you this, but sometimes you will still get called these things as an adult, except you will actually embrace some of them. You will learn that these are just words. Words that only have power if you choose to give them power. Every once in a while they will hurt, but you will choose to turn those words into a symbol of beauty.”

Brb, melting.

PEPPERMINT

“I’m by myself in the stairwell, and the entire basketball team comes up the steps and one of the boys beats the hell out of me” – RuPaul’s Drag Race

This season of RuPaul’s Drag Race, Peppermint told a chilling story about her years at high school. After she had commented that one of the basketball players on the school team was "cute", the entire team later turned on her and beat up her.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AjXE7e2t-0g

And now? Now she’s a fabulous internationally renowned drag queen with the world at her feet, all because she stayed true to her real self. Winning.

KYLIE JENNER

“Growing up, I’ve heard the worst things anyone could ever say about me and bullying was such a big part of my life with the whole entire world judging me and stuff. So I started to look towards people with, like, I think, bigger more real issues then I have.” - Wonderland magazine

In an interview with Wonderland magazine in March last year, Kylie talked about the fact that being thrust into the Keeping Up With The Kardashians spotlight from such a young age wasn't as glam as it may have seemed. Kylie was getting bullied at school, and eventually she even opted to be home schooled.

Since then, as well as creating her own empire with her beauty range, and basically becoming a millionaire at just 18, Kylie decided that her bullies were just haters, and that there were worst things in the world to have to cope with. Cue her anti-bullying Instagram campaign #IAmMoreThan which saw her post six different pictures of inspiring individuals who had turned the negative bullying they received into something positive. And it was hella empowering.

ED SHEERAN 

(about being bullied) “People don’t like what is different. I think there were three redheads in our school, and that was different… Kids are always gonna find things to pick on other kids for”

He might be the world's most successful male solo artist now, but back in the day Ed Sheeran wasn't always appreciated for who he was. Ed was a victim of bullying growing up, but he didn't let that phase him as he continued to focus on his music, built up his YouTube channel, committed to making it in music and, finally, absolutely bladdy smashed it to the point of no return.

We'd like to see that school reunion.

For more tools and information if you’re being bullied, take a look at the Anti-Bullying Alliance or Childline site, or if you need to talk to someone, ring Childline’s helpline on 0800 1111.

18 Inspiring Celebs Who've Spoken Out About Their Mental Health

  • "I suffer from depression and was a model during a particularly rough patch of self-hatred...I'm focusing on filming and trying to learn not to pick apart my every flaw" - Cara Delevingne
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    1 of 18
  • “If there’s anyone out there going through [depression], I think for them to see that I went through it, it would help… for a long time I used to think...strong people in life... they just get on with it” - Stormzy
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    2 of 18
  • “I really felt like I was dying – my light completely out. I said to myself, ‘Whatever is left in there, even just one light molecule, you will find it and make it multiply’… I learned that my sadness never destroyed what was great about me” – Lady Gaga
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    3 of 18
  • “Anxiety is nothing to be ashamed of; it affects millions of people every day. I know I have fans out there who have been through this kind of thing, too, and I wanted to be honest for their sake, if nothing else” – Zayn Malik
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    4 of 18
  • “I had to stop because I had everything, and I was absolutely broken inside. And I kept it all together enough so that I’d never let you down but... I let myself down… if you are broken you do not have to stay broken” - Selena Gomez
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  • “My anxiety and depression have ruled my life for as long as I can remember and I never leave the house because of it... I’m tired of being held back in my life. I deserve to have peace. I deserve to be happy and smiling. Why not me?” - Kid Cudi
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  • “It’s so normal. Everyone experiences a version of anxiety or worry in their lives, there’s nothing wrong with you. To be a sensitive person that cares a lot, that takes things in in a deep way, is actually part of what makes you amazing” – Emma Stone
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  • [About his OCD] “I remember my makeup artist and assistant walking me to the set and going, ‘Oh God, we’re going to need 10 minutes... he has to walk back and step on that thing, touch the door and walk in and out again" - Leonardo DiCaprio
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  • “You can’t let panic or anxiety change the way you do things because you get one life… I’m never going to get back the years that I’ve wasted being too terrified to ever leave my house” - Zoella
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    9 of 18
  • "Mental health disabilities are an illness, not a weakness. They are an issue, not an identity. It’s ok to suffer from a mental illness, but it’s not ok to not talk about it" – Jack Harries
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    10 of 18
  • “[My fans] know that I've struggled with depression, and [they tell me that I] helped them get over theirs. That gives me a big purpose—a reason to wake up in the morning” - Miley Cyrus
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    11 of 18
  • “I’m struggling just to get through the days. I think a lot of people are. You get lonely, you know, when you’re on the road. People see the glam and the amazing stuff, but they don’t know the other side. This life can rip you apart” – Justin Bieber
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    12 of 18
  • “Not being able to leave the house [because of panic attacks] was so debilitating… I couldn’t go to the studio unless I was lying down in the car with a pillow over my face. I used to beat myself up about it” – Ellie Goulding
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    13 of 18
  • “[When filming Deadpool] I never, ever slept… The expectations were eating me alive… Blake helped me through that. I’m lucky to have her around just to keep me sane” – Ryan Reynolds
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    14 of 18
  • “[My eating disorder and self-harming] was a way of expressing my own shame, of myself, on my own body… There were some times where my emotions were just so built up, I didn’t know what to do” – Demi Lovato
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    15 of 18
  • [About a documentary in which he cried] “It scared me that people were going to see me at my most vulnerable… but that conversation changed everything… everything was out in the open and I was able to then talk to my friends about it” – Professor Green
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  • “I had to reprogram myself to see the good in me. Because someone didn’t love me didn’t mean I was unlovable. That’s what the break-up of my marriage reduced me to. It took away my self-esteem. It beat me down to the lowest of lows” – Halle Berry
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    17 of 18
  • “Antidepressants help! If you can change your brain chemistry enough to think: ‘I want to get up in the morning; I don’t want to sleep until four in the afternoon. I want to get up and go do my s**t and go to work’. Reset the auto-meter" - Jon Hamm
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