Bullying: Wanna Help Stop It? Join Me and the facebook group 'Young Adult Authors Against Bullying'

Cyber bullies at a high school in California that drove one Teen to leave the school.

Bullies at a school in Massachusetts who made life so intolerable for one Teen that she killed herself.

Over and over we hear these stories of intolerance, of meanness, of the power dynamic of putting someone else down so the bullies can feel bigger, or better.

We see the pattern of using someone's gender non-conformity (girls who are too masculine, or boys who are too feminine) or someone's real or perceived sexual orientation as ammunition in an onslaught designed to strengthen an unjust status quo.

Enough is enough.

So authors Carrie Jones and Megan Kelley Hall started a facebook group, Young Adult Authors Against Bullying, to help turn the tide. In Carrie's words:

We were tired - tired of hearing about tragedies because of bullying, tired of seeing bullies on television, in schools, in the grocery stores. So often people who are bullied feel like they are worthless, alone, couldn’t possibly make it through. Even when bullying doesn’t involve an emotional element, the bully’s words echo, and worm their way into people’s hearts, eroding their self worth.

As an author who writes for kids, I wanted to find a way to use words for good, to make a tiny dent in all that bad by creating a place where people who were bullied can read about others who made it through.

Authors seemed like the perfect people to do that. And since Megan Kelley Hall and I started the group we’ve read tons of stories that are so poignant and heart-wrenching of adult authors and teens who have dealt with this.

For a lot of them, telling their stories has been incredibly hard, but also powerful because they know that they are showing others that they aren’t alone. One person said that they were ashamed that they had been bullied, that they had hidden it, but seeing how many other people out there had been bullied as well made them stronger.

And really, that's so important. Finding the power in words. In stories. Together.

In the real world, speak up if you see someone else being bullied.

And online, Join the facebook group.

And stand with Megan, and Carrie, and Me, and thousands of others... and together, we'll create a movement, an uprising, a revolution - to stop bullying.

Because enough is enough.