‘Girls Against Bullying’: Teen Celeb Video Sends Powerful Message

Several teen celebrities are taking on the stereotype that smart, beautiful and kind kids can’t be bullied in a new video, “Girls Against Bullying,” that encourages the practice of empathy. The video underscores how rampant bullying has become and that girls are targeted more often than boys.

The video features more than two dozen girls, including Oona Laurence, Milly Shapiro, Donshea Hopkins, Hawwaa Ibrahim and Nerghiz Sarki. It was produced by No Bully, one of the country’s leading anti-bullying advocacy groups, in partnership with The Kind Coalition, which aims to record 100,000 acts of kindness in 2019 through its #100KChooseKind social media challenge.

Twenty-five other teens make up the ensemble cast of the video. Their collective message: “We owe it to ourselves as women to support each other. We are the future. The voices of change. We can and we will make a difference in the world.”

Patch is in your town and Across America. Click here for our free morning national newsletter.

Carrie Berk, a 16-year-old bestselling author, playwright and influencer, wrote the script and narrated the video. Also a teen ambassador for No Bully, Berk said she has experienced bullying first-hand.

“All of us participating in this video have,” she said. “And I believe it has to stop. We should lift each other up instead of tear each other down.”

She became involved to bring awareness to how cruel girls can be toward one another, “not just in school or the dance studio, or in the cafeteria, but over social media as well,” she said.

A growing body of research suggests that girls are significantly more likely to be targeted than boys, and that how girls are bullied differs. Boys tend to bully more openly, while girls are more secretive, often spreading rumors about their victims anonymously on social media. Or, No Bully points out, they may bully in packs.

Related
Bullied To Death: When Kids Kill With Words
Teen Tells Bullies In Video: 'Every Day I Wear Your Words'
The Bully Menace: What Patch Has Learned About Childhood Torture

The Cyberbullying Research Center said that cyberbullying — relentless online torment that follows kids home from school — is more common among girls than boys. In a national survey, nearly 37 percent of girls reported cyberbullying, compared with 30.5 percent of boys. And a study from Canadian researchers found that not only are girls more likely to be cyberbullied than boys, but they are at greater risk to develop emotional problems as a result.

Social media is so intertwined with how kids communicate that they’re rarely without their smartphones and other devices. And while stacks of published data don’t directly link cyberbullying, ubiquitous social media and suicide, a federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention study published in November 2017 offered a theory: The growing use of social media among teens can have deadly consequences. The CDC ranked suicide as the second-leading cause of death among kids and adults ages 10-24 last year.

The CDC research said teen suicides shot up more than 30 percent overall from 2010 to 2015. For girls, the increase was even steeper — up 65 percent.

The more exposure adolescents had to electronic devices and social media, the more likely they were to suffer serious depression, attempt suicide or actually take their lives, the researchers found.

A Girls’ Index survey of 10,000 girls in grades 5-12 by the nonprofit Ruling Our Experiences found similar results: Girls who spend the most time using technology are five times more likely to say they are sad or depressed nearly every day. Additionally, the researchers wrote, technology intended to connect people ended up isolating the girls, and they were less likely to be involved in extracurricular activities at their schools than those who spent less time on social media.

Kids of the Arts founder Laura Luc, who produced and directed the video, pointed out that bullying isn’t just directed at young girls, but at women as well.

“We as women need to lead by example, in the way that we communicate with one another and by treating each other with respect,” Luc said. “There is nothing better than being surrounded by an incredible and supportive group of women who are accomplishing great things. Now that's girl power."

The key takeaway from the video should be “you are always enough,” said Laurence, at 16 a Tony Award winner for her role in Broadway’s “Matilda” and also the star of films such as “The Beguiled,” “Pete’s Dragon” and “Bad Moms.”

“No girl should ever let the cruel words of others define who they are,” Laurence said in the video “No matter your background, you deserve to be loved, both by others and yourself.”

Here’s what some of the other teen celebrities featured in the video had to say:

Milly Shapiro, 16, Tony Honors for Excellence Winner for “Matilda” and a teen ambassador for No Bully: “This video is important to me because it shows that together we are strong and we should take the time to demonstrate compassion and empathy for each other.”

Donshea Hopkins, 16, one of the stars of “Orange is the New Black”: “To be authentically yourself, you have to live to be the best you and not give bullies the power to control you.”

Hawwaa Ibrahim, 19, “Project Runway: Junior” designer and activist: “My whole life, I was bullied online and in the small town I lived in for being different, dressing differently, and liking different things. Bullies can have a huge effect on an individual, so bringing awareness to the problem and teaching others how to respect people’s differences is the first step for changing this thing that seems so normalized now.”

Nerghiz Sarki, 16, one of the stars of Broadway’s “Fiddler on the Roof”: “By taking a stand and treating everyone the way that you want to be treated, we can make a difference in the world.”

Resources
Read more about the challenge for 100,000 random acts of kindness from The Kind Coalition.
Lean more about efforts to combat bullying at No Bully.

Lead image, from left: Donshea Hopkins, Hawwaa Ibrahim, Oona Laurence, Carrie Berk, Nerghiz Sarki and Milly Shapiro, courtesy of No Bully.