How It Felt

I remember some of my best friends turned against me and I just felt completely worthless. I convinced myself there was something about me that made all of these people turn against me and ostracize me! I feel really lucky that I have such a great family to help me rise above it and channel all of my pain into a project that will be able to help other kids survive similar or worse experiences.

I started doing research with tweens and teens to figure out just how many people actually are suffering from bullying. That plus my personal experience led me to write a book called "Dorie Witt's Guide to Surviving Bullies." It's a made-up story about very real happenings and feelings.

I began my process by creating a questionnaire and online survey. I administered my questionnaire in various focus groups in which students came together and talked about bullying. You can find some of the questions and answers at the beginning of each chapter of my book! In my opinion, it shows that bullying is a universal issue that kids like you and me across America are dealing with every day!

So, I've gone from being bullied to helping other people get through it. When I talk to school groups, I close the exercise by asking everybody to close their eyes and think about a time when the situation was reversed. Was there a time when you were the one who wasn't being too nice? (p.s. In case you were wondering, my hand goes up every time for this question, too.)

But it's not just my hand. Again, about 3 in 4 people — most of the audience — say they have sometimes been the bully!

So I always ask, "If we know bullying can hurt so much, why do we sometimes turn around and become a bully ourselves?"