When my niece recently “liked” this Facebook post, it showed up in her newsfeed and consequently mine:

Hey guys, this is _______. Isnt she beautiful? Lately alot of girls at her school have been ganging up on her, and telling her how ugly she is. I beg to differ, because this beautiful smart little girl is like a sister to me, and I know shes above that. I dont want her confidence to be crushed, after all everyone has said about her. because she IS GORGEOUS,

Like this picture if you agree and care.

Lets restore some of her shine ♥

I, too, was the victim of bullies when I was junior high age. I was new in a school where the rest of the class had been together since kindergarten. As the daughter of a single, working mother, I was different. Different is not good in junior high. Fitting in is good, sticking out is bad. At some unforeseen moment, the girls, my “friends” turned on me. They ignored me, they said bad things about me and I was isolated. This went on for a couple of months and then ended as abruptly as it began.

I didn’t always apply the label “bullying” to this experience. At that time, the kids who physically abused others were the only bullies we heard about. Emotional abuse was dismissed. And I do realize how lucky I was. There was no internet, no Facebook, no YouTube. My experience was painful at the time, but the hurtfulness was contained. It didn’t spread like electronic wildfire. It would have been different today.

Note: I decided not to include the names of the poster or the victim to prevent any further pain. I included the picture to support the poster’s premise that this is a lovely young girl.