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Yak Exclusive: Big Brother 13’s Shelly Speaks Out Against Bullying

As Anti-Bullying week comes to an end here at YakkityYaks, we want to be a reminder that ACTION leads to CHANGE. We hope we have gotten that across throughout the week as we have teamed up with past and present Reality TV Stars, our Forum members, and fans on Facebook and Twitter to bring an awareness to the anti-bully movement. Hopefully together, we can help put a stop to it, and help those currently stuck in the situation and in dire need of help or just someone to talk to. Just because the week is over, doesn’t mean the movement stars here. We encourage you to keep the momentum going and keep us updated on your own personal initiatives!

As one of our biggest supporters throughout this week, Big Brother’s Shelly Moore, has provided the Yak with her story as well. Shelly is probably fresh on the minds of many Big Brother fans after her time spent in the house this past summer, which housed “newbies” and alums of the game alike. Shelly is no stranger, as we previously reported, to cyber attacks after reports of threats to Shelly herself, her job and her family surfaced while she was in the house and may have lingered after. Dwelling on those experiences, among others, Shelly has joins our initiative with other reality personalities to share her story below.

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I have never been bullied. That is a statement I can no longer make. It saddens me, it infuriates me, and it enlightens me. All too often in this world, we have the mentality of, it is not happening to me, so it can’t be that bad. It took hate, threats, jeers, and pure ugliness through the Internet, by people who hide behind sometimes clever, occasionally mean, and usually just a spur of the moment screen names for me to realize there is a problem much bigger than any of us realize. The harsh reality of “no one listens until someone dies” became more than a headline to me. I had become a statistic, obviously not one of the horrific suicides consuming young, barely a decade old children, but someone at the other end of the gun. A gun being pointed at me by people who don’t know me, but think they do through the popular TV genre called – Reality TV.

It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see that reality TV for the most part is an edited, made for TV drama. Its sole purpose is to create entertainment, garner huge ratings and advertisers, and create water cooler talk so people, often known as fans, come back for more. It is one of the most popular forms of television today, consuming prime time slots on nearly every major network. And oh yeah, if you can’t get enough, there are marathons that play endlessly on certain channels, and even channels that play nothing but reality drama day in and day out. You can see hoarders, addicts, celebrities (that were made celebrities through reality tv), prison stays, crazy police encounters, survivors in nearly every climate and survivable condition, races, and my personal favorite…house guests. Each year a new twist on reality is spun of golden thread, given a name, a network, a crazy cast of characters and off they go. And right alongside the show comes a cast of bigger characters who evaluate, blog, analyze, argue, converse, and develop opinions that in many cases are extremely polarized. It is very rare with reality characters that you would hear the statement “he or she is alright.” Instead, the casts of these “reality shows” are either gods and goddesses or villains. There is not too much in between. You’re either a character or you’re not and to be a character you have to have the traits the audience wants to cheer or jeer. You can be classified as a god or goddess if you’re hot, entertaining, funny, charming, kind, social, look great in a bathing suit, and say and do all the things the “audience” wants you to say and do. Occasionally you can receive the highest ranking for gameplay, but it really depends on who or what or how you got there. It doesn’t matter if the entire game is set up for lies, deceit, and manipulation. If you ever once utter you hope to not play that way, get ready for the so-called fans to eat you alive. It is possible to be deemed a god or goddess and then fall from grace, just as it is possible to be a villain and have redemption. It just depends how many times you get to play the game or if the audience chooses to let you sneak by.

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The Yak’s Interview with Big Brother 13’s Shelly Moore!

The Yak had the opportunity to interview Shelly before being whisked off to the jury house. Keep reading to see what she had to say!

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The Yak: The Big Brother fans at YakkityYaks can see what a pressure cooker the Big Brother House truly is, but we never had the chance to experience it. Can you tell us now, first hand, how it felt to be trapped in the house with strangers, and how stressful it really was?

Shelly: Absolutely – it is absolutely and emotional train wreck in there. In real life, when you have emotional ups and downs, you have things you can use to diffuse the emotions. Inside the Big Brother house there is nowhere to escape. When things go down, you are right in the middle of it and you have no privacy to put things in perspective. And there is a lot of downtime and there are people who use that time to stir the pot and just get things going. As a fan watching over the years, I never realized how stressful it really is. In the house, you can never turn your brain off. Anytime you see people talking, you automatically assume they are talking about you, that they are talking game, etc. I’ve cried more in the Big Brother house than I have in my entire life! However, I’ve learned more about myself and for that, I will be forever grateful.

The Yak from Forum Member Hapyhouswf: How did the strategy you were going to use before walking into the house differ from the strategy you actually used in the house? Was the way you played both sides in the game your original game plan?

Shelly: Actually, going into the house yes. My gameplan was to align immediately with the veterans. And I knew my forte would be to be social with everyone in the house, to be helpful to everyone and someone people could turn to. And wanted to stay on good terms with both sides in case I needed to switch. Having a good social game was good when I couldn’t do as well in the competitions. I was a bit of a manipulator, not necessarily in a bad way but trying to be a sounding board to everyone and to use the skills I’ve obtained in my career to manage both sides in a way that could be beneficial to me in the game.

The Yak from Forum Member Yellowdog: Do you feel that Jeff and Jordan’s outrage for you was unwarranted?

Shelly: Yes, I do. I think what resulted from a game move was only looked at as a personal move. I think its very important to remember that we were playing a game and it wasn’t personal. My adoration for them hadn’t changed. I just needed to make a game move to knock out a strong competitor. I think when people step back they will understand what I did. But it was difficult because we became good friends. At the end, we were all competing for half a million dollars. If the tables had turned, I wouldn’t have blamed them because they were also competing for half a million dollars. But, I know it’s the emotional pressure from the house. Jordan apologized later for her reaction.

The Yak from Forum Member kmteach: Why did you campaign so hard to keep Daniele in the game? Do you believe that move now is the reason for your eviction?

Shelly: I thought if I could keep Daniele, her and I could move through with her skills in the game and my social ability. I thought we could begin to get rid of Rachel and some of the others in the house. Daniele and I had become close and she played a completely different game and I saw a side of her that I appreciated. If I had not voted to keep her, I wouldn’t have exposed my intentions and caused the fall out with my alliance.

The Yak from Forum Member kmteach and Sphinx: Our fans would like to know why you took Rachel’s stuffed dog, why did it take you so long to return it, and how do you feel about those actions now?

Shelly: I took Rachel’s stuffed dog after she told a bold face lie. Rachel cares more about stuffed animals more than people. Sometimes when you take something special away from somebody it shows her real colors. I thought I would take the game, see how Rachel reacted and if she could make a change and think more about people than stuffed animals. I was angry and trying to play a trick on her. It was childish, but was it fun? Heck yeah!

The Yak: If you stayed in the game last night and won HOH, who would you have put up? If who you put up won the veto, who would you have put in their place?

Shelly: I would have put up Kalia and Porsche. If one of them won the veto, Rachel would have gone on the block.

The Yak: What would you say is the best thing you experienced while being in the house? What was your worst experience (other than being evicted of course.)?

Shelly: My favorite part was solitary confinement and being able to hear the voices of my husband and my sweet baby girl. My least favorite was having to make the decision to turn on my alliance or not. In the real world I am somebody who would never turn on friends and people and knowing I would hurt somebody was tough and it was hard to look into the eyes of someone you care about knowing that you hurt them.

The Yak from Forum Member Sassygal: What do you think Josie would be most proud of you for accomplishing and what she be most disappointed in you for doing?

Shelly: I think she would be most proud of how I treated people in the game and how I tried to take care of them and show them a good side of the person that I really am – little things like pulling Porsche aside and reminding her that she is on national TV and thinking of the impression she puts out there of herself. I know she’d be happy I kept her puppy with me the entire time.

She would be most disappointed that I hurt a friend. As an 8-year-old, what they understand is friends, keeping friends and doing the right thing for a friend. I don’t know if Josie realizes as much that this is a game about money. I think she would be hurt that I hurt Jeff and Jordan and she will ask me why I hurt them since they are friends. And certainly I teach my daughter not to lie. It is a game and I struggled with having to lie to get by.

I hope my little daughter is proud of me though. I hope I represented my husband and daughter with class.

The Yak from Forum Member 19wingz: What is the ONE thing you want to be remembered for in the game of Big Brother?

Shelly: I hope people remember Shelly for the person that I am. I hope they see the moments where emotion shined through and how much I cared about people. I hope they remember that I am a mom who played the game, and I actually played the game and made moves and talked the game and learned about everyone.  I know people will remember that I was the one who cleaned up, but I don’t want to just be remembered for that. I hope I played the game the way the average fan out there watching the game would have played – as one of the fans out in America.

Thank you Shelly! It was a pleasure watching you on Big Brother this season!

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Well, what do you think? Let us know below, then come on into the forum HERE where you can submit your questions of the next evicted Houseguest!

*Please note: All questions submitted to us were asked as usual, but were either edited or removed by CBS for game purposes.