Were you ever bullied in school for being overweight? How di

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  • LaMujerMasBonitaDelMundo
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    My favorite reply was.

    Hey Andy.

    Yeah?

    Your really fat!!

    And?

    Well, Well, your fat!!

    Whats your point? Why are you stating the obvious and trying to make it an insult...

    YOUR FAT OKAY, SHUT UP.

    You lose kid.

    LOL that was awesome liner.
  • andforpoise
    Options
    It's sad to have to read all of these stories. But it also lets me know that we're not alone in this.

    I was bullied from grade three and onward to about grade 11 (the last few years 9-11 weren't because of my weight, because people were kind of over it at that point, but I still didn't have many friends). The worst thing about it was I wasn't even THAT "fat." I just developed differently than other girls and looked more like a young woman than a scrawny teenager.

    In third grade I received a valentine's day card in my "mailbox" (we made pretend mailboxes for our desks). It was scrawled on lined paper with a pencil and it said "Roses are red, violets are blue, you're fat and really ugly, and I want to kill you." Turns out the kids who bullied me on a regular basis put another "not so cool" kid up to doing this so that they wouldn't get in trouble. Sneaky idiots. I remember another incident (about the same time) where when the teacher called our names for attendance, we'd have to tell her what our middle name was (every day is was something different - middle name, favourite colour, best friend, etc). And one of the kids who made fun of me said "I betcha Amber's middle name is Pigsfeet." Real original. That summer I was a flower girl in my uncle's wedding, and my Grandmother decided it would be a good idea to tell me that I should lose weight so I would look "slimmer" in the dress that I was wearing, and then convinced me to get on her exercise machine - I was 8, should I have really had to have to start worrying about body image? Another constant reminder of how overweight I was, was my Grandmother every time she hugged me. She would say things like "all you need to do is slim that middle a little bit."

    The worst thing about being bullied for being "fat," was growing up next to a beautiful cheerleader with a cocky attitude that all the boys idolized - my older sister. She came to pick me up one day from school (she was probably 15 or 16 and I was 10 or 11) and the next day one of the boys in my class cornered me and said: "I have a question for you. Why is your sister so hot, and you're so not?" I've carried those words with me to this day and have always compared myself to my sister. Probably didn't help that her favourite nickname for me at one point was "jambon" which is "ham" in french.

    And guess who's lovely sister is being insensitive now that I've lost/am losing weight? Mine. I thought the bullying was over... but she still manages a way to subtly get it in there. I'm pretty sure she's kind of jealous over the fact that she's no longer thinner than me but more so the same-ish size (she's 5'3 and 145 lbs, I'm 5'5 and 150). But I got her to do my hair up for me on New Year's and put on my red dress to go out and party - and I was feeling damn good about myself. So I asked her to take a picture. And she did, then stepped back, and kind of gave me this dirty look. And I asked her what the issue was and she told me "I think you should wear my spanx with your dress tonight, because you're looking a little flabby." Really?! Then a few days later when all her friends (including my ex) were over, she pulled out the camera and started making fun of the picture, saying that I should learn how to pose like a girl instead of a man/bull-*kitten*.

    In terms of how I dealt with it, I'm not sure I ever really have. In grade 3, I came home crying everyday. And in high school I would just stay home from parties and get-togethers and teach myself how to play guitar, do my homework and write. If I couldn't be "beautiful" then I was going to be talented and accomplished. I've never really actually dealt with it otherwise... except for now with my journey towards health and happiness - I've learned that those experiences told me "I can't" and I needed to learn that I can, and I've learned that now.
  • Amptitude
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    Wow, what a sick group of boys. How could you even do that to someone. /: Well, i'm glad your okay!

    Started in third grade. It was subtle, but I would just get nastly looks and "checked out" with horrified faces of the "popular girls." And they would call me ugly, blah blah. That's when the insecurities started, really. I started staring in the middle wondering how I could get rid of it, and I even remember promising myself that if I weren't the ideal weight by 14 I'd kill myself - silly promise, I guess because I was so young - but the fact that I made that promise to myself when I was merely 9-10 years old or so scares me.
    Then in 7th grade I got picked on by 4 guys 24/7 for any possible thing you could imagine - even my shoe laces? what the hell? That really sucked because I had been a close friend with one of the boys before, so he knew all my insecurities and really knew how to hit me hard.

    Buuuut I just moved to NY, I'm a junior and it's been really hard. Even though no one makes fun of me here, I still have a hard time meeting people due to social anxiety. Although a teacher came up to me because she saw I was sitting alone and awkwardly hooked me up with a group of girls which I still sit by today. We might not be "friend-friends" but we still talk, at least at lunch we do.

    Just thought I'd share!
  • emmiexjay
    emmiexjay Posts: 146 Member
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    I was bullied from nursery school age. I was 3. I had teachers, pupils, pupils parents, dinner staff, even the head teacher bully me/ignore the fact i was bullied. I've been overweight since birth. I had to deal with and developed a thick skin. the more i ignored the bullies the more they left me alone, i was one of the lucky ones i managed to break away and keep myself from become to bad in depression. i still suffer with my depression now at 22 but i try not to let it get to me too much.
  • natika33
    natika33 Posts: 154 Member
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    I was bullied too, but not because I was overweight. It went from light in the early years, to intense through Grades 4 to 8, then I got insider bullying from Grade 9 to 11 (insider bullying is when your "friends" start to belittle you to make themselves feel better about their own insecurities).

    I had issues. I didn't initiate conversation ever and I was very defensive. If someone spoke to me, I assumed it was to make fun of me and would often be mean or curt with people who approached me for the first time. Consequently, I drove away a lot of people who could have been friends. It took me awhile to realise that not everyone was out to get me.

    I messed up some situations with boys and dating too, well into my twenties. I think it's related.

    Overall though, I think I've done better than some. I had my moments of insecurity and sadness, but never became seriously depressed. Somewhere inside, I always knew I had value. I used to seize on the slightest positive comment and remind myself of them anytime anyone said anything bad. I also got very good at believing such lies such as "Stick and stones may break my bones, but words can never hurt me."

    I think being an outsider taught me more than just empathy for other people's problems. I think it taught me how to look at things objectively and not make decisions based on emotion (I spent a long time learning how not to feel). It taught me how to read people and evaluate at what angle they are coming from (I spent years watching people as one would watch a tennis match). Most of all, it taught me that I don't need to take abuse - I can walk away. (After all, I've already managed to live without people before, so I can darn well do it again!)

    The funny thing is, THE MOST popular girl from my elementary school ended up being my lab partner during one course in university. One day, out of the blue she looked at me and said, "You know, I was always so jealous of you. I was stuck having to please everyone - wear what people told me, do what people told me - but you were out there free. Everyone thought you were weird anyway, so you could do whatever you wanted and get away with it!" That wasn't entirely true of course, but it made me realise that even the popular kids have their own challenges and insecurities to overcome.

    Fat is just fat. It's just something mainly on the outside of our bodies that can be burned off. It's not who we are - it's mere insulation. It sucks that so many people can't see past it, but perhaps it's a good thing that they reveal how near-sighted they are. If they can't see the value inside, they aren't worthy of me.
  • twilightsm
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    I was bullied mostly in junior high. The unfortunate part of the bullying was that there was already a fat kid in my class and he was more popular than I was. So the bulling was more "Your ugly" than "Your fat". I was called a Hideous Whale Beast, a Yedi, Shamu...

    My family would tease me about my weight... but I like to think that they meant it in a loving sort of way. I mean, being called a seacow isn't so bad. Manatees are cute! The hardest part came with the serious talks about my weight with my Mom. I was pushing over 200lbs in junior high... so I'm sure she was concered about my health. When I was 12, my Mom signed me up for Weight Watchers, for water arobics (in a class full of senior citizens), she made me Sweat to the Oldies and then complain that I was doing it wrong. She told me that she was going to treat my being overweight "like any other mental disorder" and said that "she would love me no matter what, but nobody is going to fall in love with a 300lbs person." I think she meant well... but being super petite and like 115 at her highest weight, she wasn't really sure how to handle me being fat. :/
  • PhatAndy
    PhatAndy Posts: 285
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    It's sad to have to read all of these stories. But it also lets me know that we're not alone in this.

    I was bullied from grade three and onward to about grade 11 (the last few years 9-11 weren't because of my weight, because people were kind of over it at that point, but I still didn't have many friends). The worst thing about it was I wasn't even THAT "fat." I just developed differently than other girls and looked more like a young woman than a scrawny teenager.

    In third grade I received a valentine's day card in my "mailbox" (we made pretend mailboxes for our desks). It was scrawled on lined paper with a pencil and it said "Roses are red, violets are blue, you're fat and really ugly, and I want to kill you." Turns out the kids who bullied me on a regular basis put another "not so cool" kid up to doing this so that they wouldn't get in trouble. Sneaky idiots. I remember another incident (about the same time) where when the teacher called our names for attendance, we'd have to tell her what our middle name was (every day is was something different - middle name, favourite colour, best friend, etc). And one of the kids who made fun of me said "I betcha Amber's middle name is Pigsfeet." Real original. That summer I was a flower girl in my uncle's wedding, and my Grandmother decided it would be a good idea to tell me that I should lose weight so I would look "slimmer" in the dress that I was wearing, and then convinced me to get on her exercise machine - I was 8, should I have really had to have to start worrying about body image? Another constant reminder of how overweight I was, was my Grandmother every time she hugged me. She would say things like "all you need to do is slim that middle a little bit."

    The worst thing about being bullied for being "fat," was growing up next to a beautiful cheerleader with a cocky attitude that all the boys idolized - my older sister. She came to pick me up one day from school (she was probably 15 or 16 and I was 10 or 11) and the next day one of the boys in my class cornered me and said: "I have a question for you. Why is your sister so hot, and you're so not?" I've carried those words with me to this day and have always compared myself to my sister. Probably didn't help that her favourite nickname for me at one point was "jambon" which is "ham" in french.

    And guess who's lovely sister is being insensitive now that I've lost/am losing weight? Mine. I thought the bullying was over... but she still manages a way to subtly get it in there. I'm pretty sure she's kind of jealous over the fact that she's no longer thinner than me but more so the same-ish size (she's 5'3 and 145 lbs, I'm 5'5 and 150). But I got her to do my hair up for me on New Year's and put on my red dress to go out and party - and I was feeling damn good about myself. So I asked her to take a picture. And she did, then stepped back, and kind of gave me this dirty look. And I asked her what the issue was and she told me "I think you should wear my spanx with your dress tonight, because you're looking a little flabby." Really?! Then a few days later when all her friends (including my ex) were over, she pulled out the camera and started making fun of the picture, saying that I should learn how to pose like a girl instead of a man/bull-*kitten*.

    In terms of how I dealt with it, I'm not sure I ever really have. In grade 3, I came home crying everyday. And in high school I would just stay home from parties and get-togethers and teach myself how to play guitar, do my homework and write. If I couldn't be "beautiful" then I was going to be talented and accomplished. I've never really actually dealt with it otherwise... except for now with my journey towards health and happiness - I've learned that those experiences told me "I can't" and I needed to learn that I can, and I've learned that now.


    This made me cry a little, you had it really hard my dear.. that sucks bigtime. But according to your scale you are doing just fine now.. I really hope that you can dig deep and see the positives that came out of it now that you are older! im sure you are just as compassionate and empathetic as the rest of us in the Got Bullied club.
  • PhatAndy
    PhatAndy Posts: 285
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    Wow, what a sick group of boys. How could you even do that to someone. /: Well, i'm glad your okay!

    Started in third grade. It was subtle, but I would just get nastly looks and "checked out" with horrified faces of the "popular girls." And they would call me ugly, blah blah. That's when the insecurities started, really. I started staring in the middle wondering how I could get rid of it, and I even remember promising myself that if I weren't the ideal weight by 14 I'd kill myself - silly promise, I guess because I was so young - but the fact that I made that promise to myself when I was merely 9-10 years old or so scares me.
    Then in 7th grade I got picked on by 4 guys 24/7 for any possible thing you could imagine - even my shoe laces? what the hell? That really sucked because I had been a close friend with one of the boys before, so he knew all my insecurities and really knew how to hit me hard.

    Buuuut I just moved to NY, I'm a junior and it's been really hard. Even though no one makes fun of me here, I still have a hard time meeting people due to social anxiety. Although a teacher came up to me because she saw I was sitting alone and awkwardly hooked me up with a group of girls which I still sit by today. We might not be "friend-friends" but we still talk, at least at lunch we do.

    Just thought I'd share!

    3 Cliche words for you hun, It gets better. I promise.
  • PhatAndy
    PhatAndy Posts: 285
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    I was bullied from nursery school age. I was 3. I had teachers, pupils, pupils parents, dinner staff, even the head teacher bully me/ignore the fact i was bullied. I've been overweight since birth. I had to deal with and developed a thick skin. the more i ignored the bullies the more they left me alone, i was one of the lucky ones i managed to break away and keep myself from become to bad in depression. i still suffer with my depression now at 22 but i try not to let it get to me too much.

    Im sorry you've had such an awful life! stick in there, your only 22. there is a light at the end of the tunnel.
  • PhatAndy
    PhatAndy Posts: 285
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    I was bullied too, but not because I was overweight. It went from light in the early years, to intense through Grades 4 to 8, then I got insider bullying from Grade 9 to 11 (insider bullying is when your "friends" start to belittle you to make themselves feel better about their own insecurities).

    I had issues. I didn't initiate conversation ever and I was very defensive. If someone spoke to me, I assumed it was to make fun of me and would often be mean or curt with people who approached me for the first time. Consequently, I drove away a lot of people who could have been friends. It took me awhile to realise that not everyone was out to get me.

    I messed up some situations with boys and dating too, well into my twenties. I think it's related.

    Overall though, I think I've done better than some. I had my moments of insecurity and sadness, but never became seriously depressed. Somewhere inside, I always knew I had value. I used to seize on the slightest positive comment and remind myself of them anytime anyone said anything bad. I also got very good at believing such lies such as "Stick and stones may break my bones, but words can never hurt me."

    I think being an outsider taught me more than just empathy for other people's problems. I think it taught me how to look at things objectively and not make decisions based on emotion (I spent a long time learning how not to feel). It taught me how to read people and evaluate at what angle they are coming from (I spent years watching people as one would watch a tennis match). Most of all, it taught me that I don't need to take abuse - I can walk away. (After all, I've already managed to live without people before, so I can darn well do it again!)

    The funny thing is, THE MOST popular girl from my elementary school ended up being my lab partner during one course in university. One day, out of the blue she looked at me and said, "You know, I was always so jealous of you. I was stuck having to please everyone - wear what people told me, do what people told me - but you were out there free. Everyone thought you were weird anyway, so you could do whatever you wanted and get away with it!" That wasn't entirely true of course, but it made me realise that even the popular kids have their own challenges and insecurities to overcome.

    Fat is just fat. It's just something mainly on the outside of our bodies that can be burned off. It's not who we are - it's mere insulation. It sucks that so many people can't see past it, but perhaps it's a good thing that they reveal how near-sighted they are. If they can't see the value inside, they aren't worthy of me.

    This was very inspiring for me, thank you.
  • PhatAndy
    PhatAndy Posts: 285
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    I was bullied mostly in junior high. The unfortunate part of the bullying was that there was already a fat kid in my class and he was more popular than I was. So the bulling was more "Your ugly" than "Your fat". I was called a Hideous Whale Beast, a Yedi, Shamu...

    My family would tease me about my weight... but I like to think that they meant it in a loving sort of way. I mean, being called a seacow isn't so bad. Manatees are cute! The hardest part came with the serious talks about my weight with my Mom. I was pushing over 200lbs in junior high... so I'm sure she was concered about my health. When I was 12, my Mom signed me up for Weight Watchers, for water arobics (in a class full of senior citizens), she made me Sweat to the Oldies and then complain that I was doing it wrong. She told me that she was going to treat my being overweight "like any other mental disorder" and said that "she would love me no matter what, but nobody is going to fall in love with a 300lbs person." I think she meant well... but being super petite and like 115 at her highest weight, she wasn't really sure how to handle me being fat. :/

    How have you changed? Personality wise? Was this a positive expirience for you or was it still a negative?
  • amyy902
    amyy902 Posts: 290 Member
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    thats not fair, i was never bullied and always had amazing friends.
    im sorry people have to experience that, some people are just so horrrid! :(
  • PhatAndy
    PhatAndy Posts: 285
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    thats not fair, i was never bullied and always had amazing friends.
    im sorry people have to experience that, some people are just so horrrid! :(

    Beautiful people (To Society) usually aren't bullied :p
  • cdburger94
    cdburger94 Posts: 23 Member
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    I was. From Kindergarten through 8th grade... Ever since I have been homeschooled because my anxiety became too hard to control and I was becoming very violent. I was left out, I was frowned upon... even by teachers. It was horrid.
  • JanetLM73
    JanetLM73 Posts: 1,277 Member
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    I'm so sorry that you went though that.....I HATE bullies, it just shows that their parents suck at being parents.

    And I was bullied from about Gr 4-8 but not for weight. Some people just suck.
  • Wendi_S
    Wendi_S Posts: 489 Member
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    The boys on the bus used to say 'Weebles wobble but they don't fall down" when I would walk by. I would cry on a daily basis.


    Ironically these are the same guys who now comment that it's too bad I'm married!! As if they'd ever have a chance in hell with me!!!
  • PhatAndy
    PhatAndy Posts: 285
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    The boys on the bus used to say 'Weebles wobble but they don't fall down" when I would walk by. I would cry on a daily basis.


    Ironically these are the same guys who now comment that it's too bad I'm married!! As if they'd ever have a chance in hell with me!!!

    Hahah! Gotta love that feeling of karma.
  • albinogorilla
    albinogorilla Posts: 1,056 Member
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    These things will always exist................there is not way to stop it from happening, but all of these stories should serve as good motivation for people to make sure that their kids don't go through the same thing. Start the kids on a healthy path so they don't have to endure what others have gone through.
  • amyy902
    amyy902 Posts: 290 Member
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    thats not fair, i was never bullied and always had amazing friends.
    im sorry people have to experience that, some people are just so horrrid! :(

    Beautiful people (To Society) usually aren't bullied :p

    that may be true, but its not fair, theres so many people on this post that have had to go through hell because they didnt meet a certain protocal set by stupid people!!!!!
  • grrrlface
    grrrlface Posts: 1,204 Member
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    It makes me feel sad to hear the amount of bullying that has gone on and that people can be so mean!

    I was bullied from when I was around 12yo for being 'fat'... I wasn't even overweight. It caused me to stop eating at school because I was ashamed to be seen with food at all. That then spread into my home life and I became really thin. Had to be taken out of school because I was ill and I was depressed.

    Took me until I was 18 to get over it, I met my current boyfriend and I was happy again! :) Now I'm trying to get my weight back to healthy as I gained a lot of weight since I was 18! :)
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