“And if you can’t see anything beautiful about yourself, get a better mirror, look a little closer, stare a little longer.”
This video will leave you feeling speechless. For anyone who’s ever been picked on, ridiculed or made to feel worthless, listen to the powerful words of Canadian poet, Shane Koyczan. With over a million views in just two days, Koyczan uses spoken word and illustrations to tackle the misconceptions of bullying and depression.
This seven-minute video is part of a anti-bullying campaign. Koyczan wants to spread awareness and get the community together on an issue that cripples so many lives. On the, To This Day Project website, Koyczan explains that his video looks to “further explain the profound and lasting impact bullying can have on an individual.” Shane, who was bullied himself, uses his own painful experiences to create this powerful video.
And who can we thank for these artistic illustrations? Well animation and motion artists were asked to integrate their own unique styles into 20 second segments; the different videos were then pieced together to create one stunning video.
Remember friends, make love not war.
Lets face it, very few people consider high school the highlight of their lives. In fact, if you do it’s pretty sad. There’s so much awesome, fun, weird and crazy stuff to experience after you get your diploma. Someone brought up bullies in our office and it inspired us to make this. Not only do you get to see what the ANDPOP staff looked like in high school we share some personal stories about our own experiences. As you can see, not everyone looked as “cool” as they do now.
There’s a 99 percent chance that I will shed at least three tears during each episode of The X-Factor. My first cry of the season went to contestent Jillian Jensen, whose heartfelt rendition of Jessie J’s “Who You Are” was doubly emotional because of her experience with bullying in middle school.
The contestant endured mean spirited pranks and hazing from classmates who would go so far as call her and make fun of her music. Jensen put so much of her own experience into each lyric, that she brought the judging panel to tears — particularly Demi Lovato who went through a similar experience with bullying as well. The teen star approached Jensen on stage and gave her a huge hug.
“When you sang, you broke my heart,” Demi said. “I can’t wait for the bullies at home to see this.” I think we all hope that the people behind the cruel teasing are rethinking their actions.
Cody Simpson has already endorsed Jensen, tweeting: “watching X Factor. congratulations @ItsJillJensen, that was inspiring. #StopBullying #DefeatTheLabel.”
Who brought your to tears last night? Let us know in the comments or on Twitter at @andpop.
Pets are susceptible to bullying just as much as humans are.
But fear not! This little girl is here to save the day. As a puppy viciously growls and barks away at the cat, his owner carries him away to safety.
Uh…WTF did I just watch?
Everyone has probably been teased once or twice in their lives, but according to this video, karma is truly a bitch.
In this corny ’80s public service announcement about bullying, watch what happens when a bike gang stops in the middle of the road to heckle a group of kids playing catch.
BUT LO AND BEHOLD! KARMA STRIKES BACK.
While the repercussions of bullying can be bad, I don’t think the end result was the best way to portray the consequences of teasing someone.
P.S. I also don’t think the kid in the green shirt was too upset about the incident either.
There was lots of Twitter hate going down last night on Liam Payne’s girlfriend, dancer Danielle Peazer. It was coming from a select group of ‘fans’ who were sending Payne nasty messages on Twitter.
The 1D singer was disgusted by the comments about his girlfriend and responded with a tweet: ”Just as I start to like twitter again I see the nasty side of people who like to dislike somebody who makes me … Me.” He also wrote: ”#SometimesIHateTwitter when it becomes a place to abuse people who uve never met never did anything to you but you still choose to be cruel.”
He continued: “and to all those people who are going to be dicks and tweet her horrible stuff now just because i mentioned it… boring grow up.”
He mentioned he appreciates all the people who are nice to his girlfriend and that it makes him smile when Payne shares the nice messages people send her.
Eventually the hashtag #WeLoveDanielle started trending, hopefully making the conscience of those horrible jerks kick in.
People, online bullying — bullying of ANY form — is sooo uncool.
Happier news
On to happier things. Let’s all salivate and watch Harry Styles shirt being ripped off by his bandmates around 2:09, during a Chicago show.
Watch it here:
Skrillex relayed his online bullying miseries to Pitchfork, saying he’s been slapped with a lot of cruel words on Facebook. To his credit, Skrillex just doesn’t care.
“I don’t care if people hate me. I mean, I get it. When you were young, you were like, ‘The Backstreet Boys are gay!’ He said: “And kids are on computers now. I’ll post something on Facebook, and then, within two seconds, there are comments: ‘Fuck you dude… you suck… pussy… bitch… faggot… you ruined dubstep… emo.’ But if you look at their profiles, they’re so young.”
Most people have experienced some form of online bullying, whether it’s on Facebook, Twitter or their blog. It’s a good message for Skrillex to push to his fans. Half of these users are protected by the shield of anonymity and are probably just taking out their own frustrations on someone else.
In the same interview, Skrillex said he turned down the chance to collaborate with the Foo Fighters and Deadmau5, which is surprising considering Deadmau5 was seemingly against big name collaborations.
Skrillex will headline this summer’s South West Four Weekender and is fresh off his SXSW performance.
Watch it below:
Although Cody Simpson has become an international phenomenon, the Australian singer once was a victim of bullying. That’s why he has joined the anti-bullying movement Defeat the Label, along with Miley Cyrus and Paula Abdul.
“I’ve seen the severity of bullying, just being a regular kid coming from a regular school, it’s a bigger problem for kids my age than drugs and alcohol,” he told SMH.
“I was teased a little bit for choosing a career path that not many kids do, a lot of kids were doing other things like joining the rugby team but music was just something I loved.
“I just learned very early to not care what other people think, the music teacher at my old school used to let me into the music room when everyone else was running off to do other things as it was just something that I loved.”
Look whose laughing now bullies.
After the suicide of 14 year old Jamey Rodemeyer over the weekend, Lady Gaga wants to meet with President Obama to make bullying a hate crime.
In a video, Rodemeyer cited Gaga as an inspiration, saying, “She makes me so happy. She lets me know that I was born this way. And that’s my advice to you from her: You were born this way. All you have to do is hold your head up and you’ll go far.”
Gaga tweeted, ”The past days I’ve spent reflecting, crying, and yelling,” she tweeted. “I have so much anger. It is hard to feel love when cruelty takes someone’s life.” She went further, posting Rodemeyer’s “Better” video, and insisting that bullying “must become illegal. It is a hate crime.”
Miley Cyrus and Cody Simpson have teamed up with an anti bullying project called Defeat The Label. The organization is obviously very excited, and they said the following in a statement:
“We are honored to have the support of so many influential people, including Cody Simpson, Miley Cyrus, music industry legend Ken Kragen, and PR guru Ken Sunshine, to name a few, With their help, we have been able to share the social inclusion and anti-bullying message that we so strongly believe in here at Defeat The Label. We can’t wait to announce our ground-breaking new initiative at the concert on August 28th!”
Having Miley Cyrus and Cody Simpson is a huge addition to their effort. We interviewed Cody earlier this year and thought he was a really cool guy.
Just another reason to love Apple.
Apple has released an ‘It Gets Better’ video on YouTube, aiming to seek equality for the LGBT youth and community. The video, which can be viewed below, has employees speaking of their upbringing and experiences where they’ve been discriminated and victimized for their sexual orientation.
I love when corporations do good, which Apple often does. A lot of today’s mega businesses are just out to make money, but Apple often takes the time to slow things down and focus on what needs to be done in society. They’ve focused on environmental issues, donated money to charity, and are now focusing on social equality. Props to them!
Selena Gomez appeared on the Ellen DeGeneres Show yesterday to talk her new single, “Who Says,” which she performed later on in the show.
“I felt like this single really says a lot because it’s already hard enough being 18 and figuring out who you are, and what you want to be, and people just want to constantly take you down,” Gomez told Ellen.
The song has a great message, and although it might be a bit cheesy, it does have a catchy tune! “The song is basically saying we’re all insecure,” says Gomez. “We all feel this way, and that I think everyone’s beautiful, and it’s not sad, it’s just fun. It’s just light.”
When asked if she was bullied as a kid, Gomez answered, “It wasn’t that I was bullied as a kid, I think that everybody obviously gets picked at and made fun of and I still have to obviously deal with that now.” And doesn’t she ever, with all the hate mail and death threats the young star has been receiving from Beliebers all over the world. Well WE love you Selena, and we think that you and Justin made an adorable couple!
And of course, leave it to Ellen to guilt Gomez into talking about her romance with the Biebs! When Gomez appeared on Ellen back in September, the singer/actress answered Ellen’s questioning by saying, “He’s little! He’s like my little brother…that’s weird to me!” But after showing up together arm-in-arm at the Vanity Fair party, and their shopping excursion on Bieber’s birthday, Gomez had a hard time denying it the second time around.
“Noooo,” was Gomez’s answer when Ellen asked, “But he’s not like your little brother, is he?”
“He’s sweet,” Gomez announced. As a parting gift, Ellen gave Gomez a pillow with Bieber’s face printed on it because she’s apart from Justin and she doesn’t want to miss him too much. “He’s going to make me sleep with this every night,” Gomez laughed. “Thank you for that!”
Backstage, Gomez also announced that her band, Selena Gomez and the Scene, will be touring this summer with their opening act, Allstar Weekend. The tour will kick off in Costa Mesa, CA., on July 24, 2011.
According to Perez Hilton, Gomez is thinking of adding a little Britney-love to the show. “We haven’t announced anything yet but I’m already creatively thinking about what I want and we are working on a few cover songs. We’re doing a Britney tribute which I’m so stoked about! I love Britney, I was like, ‘I have to do it, I wanna do a mash up of all her songs and just go for it. We’re gonna do her hits Baby One More Time, and then I think we’re going to try to incorporate Toxic and that phase, and then we might do some of her recent stuff.”
Can’t wait to see it, Selena! For more info and a full list of tour dates, head over to Gomez’s official website.
