Glee’s Amber Riley Speaks Up Against Bullying

Thanks to one of our Twitter followers, @Marc_Higginboth, for pointing this out to us! We want to bring you a brief announcement from Glee’s Amber Riley (Mercedes) regarding bullying and the Anti-Bullying movement. Glee has tackled the topic of bullying in past episodes, but Amber has teamed up for the “Mean Stinks!” campaign to make a change for the better! In the video below, Amber lays out three very easy ways for people to help counter bullying, gossip and plain old negative attitude in our schools. Check it out below!

Don’t Miss Big Brother Jun’s Tips Too

In an effort to join forces and increase awareness, we encourage you to share these stories with your friends and family and encourage continuous efforts to make a difference! We all are capable and we just hope that this motivates and encourages each and every one of us to take a stand and put a stop to bullying once and for all. YakkityYaks, don’t talk smack!

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nLwwhRIbqpA

Yak Exclusive: Big Brother Jun Song’s Tips To Combat Bullying

In accordance with our initiative this week, Big Brother 4 champion Jun Song took some time to send her thoughts, exclusively to the Yak, regarding bullying and the Anti-Bullying movement. Cast as part of the X Factor twist, Jun weathered through to win the prize at the end. Since her time in the Big Brother house, Jun has remained active in social media and has kept up with her fans on Twitter. While Jun has been a very polarizing previous houseguest on Twitter, she has committed herself to the Anti-Bullying movement with the Yak. At the start of the week, Jun has made a couple of affirming tweets in support of our initiative. I, Jun Song, do hereby solemnly swear to ““Stop and think. Words can hurt.” in honor of #AntiBullyingWeek because well, words are my thing. Well known by some fans for her “Twitter wars,” Jun even promised to play nice this week in support. Regardless of your impressions, stepping up for the cause is what this is all about. Here is Jun’s story and 10 tips on how to combat bullying.

We would like to personally thank Jun for stepping up and saying a few words about this important movement. We also want to sneak in a congrats to Jun as she learned that she will be having a boy!

In an effort to join forces and increase awareness, we encourage you to share these stories with your friends and family and encourage continuous efforts to make a difference! We all are capable and we just hope that this motivates and encourages each and every one of us to take a stand and put a stop to bullying once and for all. YakkityYaks, don’t talk smack!

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Growing up the only (yes, check the Census records…only, haha) Korean girl on the Lower East Side of New York City in the late 70s/early 80s I was a prime target for bullies. But after receiving my first black eye I learned to fight with my quick wit and sharp tongue instead of relying on my obviously lacking physical prowess.  That doesn’t mean I was cursing people out my whole life…only occasionally…instead I was careful in who I befriended and why. It’s no wonder I ended up on a show like Big Brother where one’s social capacities and intuition lead people down such different paths. Confrontations can’t always be avoided, but people can be more thoughtful and calculating in how they deal with  such events. Not to say BB is exactly a bullying scenario, but there are so many parallels. Everyone just wants acceptance, including bullies…and unfortunately bullies don’t have the ability to deliver that message and therefore prey on others.  We just all need to be more aware. I’m happy to be a part of Anti-Bullying Week. Thank you for the opportunity!

Anti-Bullying Week: ” I really want to make a difference…”

Continuing our aim for the week, YakkityYaks will be joining with past and present Reality TV stars and fans just like you in honor of Anti-Bullying Week. We continue to feature stories from Reality TV personalities, members in our YakkityYaks forum, and fans from Twitter and Facebook. In an effort to join forces and increase awareness, we encourage you to share these stories with your friends and family and encourage continuous efforts to make a difference! We all are capable and we just hope that this motivates and encourages each and every one of us to take a stand and put a stop to bullying once and for all. YakkityYaks, don’t talk smack!

Check out Big Brother 11’s Lydia Speaking Out Against Bullying

Read on below for two personal accounts from fans on Twitter & Facebook who felt so moved to submit their own personal and touching stories, in addition to all of our other coverage today. Names have been changed to protect identities, but the stories are straight from the heart and unedited.

If you are interested in participating in our anti-bullying initiative by sharing your story, please contact JDMontgomery@yakkityyaks.com or ShellyBB13@me.com (Big Brother’s Shelly). Each and every story can bring about great change.

We also want to announce an exciting addition to our special features this week. Everyone who submits a story will be eligible to win a phone call from a reality TV personality!

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I was bullied and picked on all my life because I was fat. Turns out, there are worse things in this world than being fat.

Two notorious bullies from my elementary and jr high years are now dead. One from suicide, the other from heroin.

Another bully from jr high changed the oil in my car in our mid-twenties while he was working at a quick-E-lube. He was bald and fat in his mid-twenties.

It was difficult at the time they were picking on me…. but I was later able to see that what goes around comes around!

– E.C.

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Ever since as long as I can remember I have dealt with being bullied.

In the First Grade is when it began. I was raised to see everyone equally. I tried to be friends with everyone whether they were black or white, male or female, anything. In first through fifth grade, it was that big of a deal to me that the kids in my class would make up rhymes to taunt me and wouldn’t play with me at recess. That’s about all I had to deal through out those grades.

Than I went into middle school. I still remember my first week of middle school I was opening my locker and another kid came by and stole my binder and ran off with it. In the 8th grade I dreaded going to band class every day because two boys in that class did everything they could to upset me, but since I had been dealing with bullying all that time I learned to pretend they weren’t bothering me this lead to even worse bullying. When the teacher turned around they would hit me or when he left the room they would beat me up. No one else in the class would say or do anything about it. They just acted like it didn’t happen and I was afraid to tell the teacher because I thought it would lead to worse things happening.

I would go home everyday crying and telling my mom everything that happened and I was really depressed. All I did when I came home from school was sleep. That’s all I really remember about my 8th grade year of school is the bullying. In the Ninth grade I got a job and almost all the managers and my co-workers bullied me. The managers would give me clothes that were too small and make fun of me about it and one of my co-worker put a box cutter to my neck trying to scare me. (It worked!) As if work wasn’t bad enough I now had to deal with being a freshmen in high school. Just one of the stories from that year is I was at my locker and a group of guys came up to me and told me to give them my money or they were gonna beat me up, so I did. This happened almost every day until a teacher saw it and stopped it once I told her what happened. I was getting threats of being beaten up alot and the people in my band class would throw water bottles and rolls of paper towels at me when the teacher wasn’t looking. After I graduated high school it all stopped.

I was adopted the day I was born into a loving family with two parents who have adopted 9 children with special needs. Seeing some of my brothers and sisters get made fun of still bothers me. I talk to them and tell them about how I was bullied but it still doesn’t work. I really want to make a difference in any way I can. Even if it leads to the bullying starting over again I just want to help others. If there is ANYTHING I can do please let me help!!

Thank you for taking the time to read this,

M.H.