Bullied for Reading

Now, if I'm going to be honest, I've only had this experience once. Aside from this one experience, I don't think I've ever been bullied by anyone for reading. I used to be so ashamed in Middle School (I'm in High School now) for telling people I liked to read because I was already an outsider and I didn't need people making fun of me to be on top of that. Honestly, I'm grateful that I didn't have as bad as an experience compared to other people who were bullied. To all of you out there getting bullied, there's nothing wrong with you, the person is just bullying you because they have their own stuff they are going through or they are just bored. You all are amazing and there shouldn't be anyone who has the right to take away your confidence! Now, I'm going to tell you how I was bullied for reading.

This happened around 7th to 8th grade, every single person had an Instagram. I even had an Instagram in elementary school! In my bio, I decided to stay true to who I was and to this day, I don't remember exactly what my bio said, but I put that I was a booknerd and then stated all the fandoms I was in at the time (Tribute, whatever they called Divergent fans, and a Nerdfighter), I loved this bio so much because it was me in just a couple words. Around this time, not that many people do this anymore, but there were TBHs where people would basically say what they thought of you. I usually didn't mind them because I had nothing about me that someone could make fun of me for, at least that's what I thought at the time. Most people usually say I'm nice and pretty, and all the stereotypical normal crap like that. These 3 girls from my school were doing like a group TBH and they would screenshot your profile and then write in the caption what they all thought. I figured, I know all these girls and I haven't done anything bad to them, so why not?

Obviously, this went downhill, they didn't really say anything that was bad in the TBH, it other people and these girl's responses to their comments that made me feel terrible. When they posted my profile with my bio, people that I knew and knew me as well were making fun that I called myself a booknerd and leaving these really nasty comments, basically laughing and calling me really rude things. These girls replying to their comments were even agreeing with them, laughing with them, and they knew me. I knew them and I would talk to them sometimes, and they laughed with them, didn't stick up for me. The more the comments rolled in, the harder I was crying. Nothing similar to this has happened to me before, I was always the shy and quiet type, so people never really bullied me because they had nothing to bully me for. Out of many people who commented on their picture, only one girl stood up for me. I didn't know that girl and she stood up for me, but it was one girl out of many other people. I only let some close friends know about this situation and they told me to text one of the girls that actually liked me fairly well. I texted her and it took some convincing to get her friend to take down the picture, it was finally deleted, but I honestly was so mortified and upset that people didn't like who I was and deleted my Instagram, going almost a year and a half without it.

Today, after like 3-4 years, I got an Instagram again, but I decided to keep my book and personal life separate because I'm honestly still afraid that someone might make fun of me again. I embrace who I am now and talk about books very often and even found an amazing group of friends who accept me for who I am and relate to me so much. I stand up for myself more often and stopped being so shy and quiet. I don't know what I would've done if I didn't embrace who I am now, I feel like I would be a whole other person (maybe I would've been one of those girls on Instagram who has like 1,000 followers), but I don't care. I'm happy of who I am now and anyone who has a problem with it can go away.

ALWAYS Keep Reading,

Anicka