My name is Gloria. I'm 14 years old and I live in a small town in the state of New Hampshire. When I was in grade school I went to a rather small school and I had never been bullied before. We were all friends because our town is so small. When I first started 6th grade I had no idea what to expect and I sort of, stayed in the background and no one knew who I was. Going into 7th grade my style changed from a girl who always wanted to blend in to someone who stood out. Making me an outcast. They labeled me as "emo" and bullied me every day. I decided just to take it and not really fight back. I was a chubby child and I always got called fat. I got pegged with nick names such as Whale, and even hippo due to the popular kids movie "Madagascar" so thank you, for naming your HIPPO, Gloria. Gave me a good middle school experience. Almost half way through my 7th grade year I started to cut myself. I also then started to scratch, pinch, even burn my skin. Eventually my school found out, told my parents and I got a little slap on the wrist. Due to all the comments about my weight I stopped eating, My dad did notice and would force me to eat. I would then go force myself to throw it all back up. Since I lived with my father in a tiny one bed room apartment some nasty rumors started about my father and I doing unspeakable things with each other. They were not true. My father was never home and I would never do such a thing. My best friend at the time abused me heavily. Mentally and physically, which triggered more self abuse. Needless to say I was a wreck. The summer going  into 8th grade I spent ALL my time in my bedroom. This was also the year I tried to kill myself, 3 times. I left a few times that summer. 8th grade I must admit was not bad at school. The bullying had died down, I had been eating normal again and I had stopped cutting but things at home started to get worse. My father was getting married, We had moved, he was paying less attention to me, not really caring what I did. I was also battling with my sexuality. 8th grade is the year I came out as a lesbian. I lost my best friend due to this. She hates lesbians. This hurt me a lot and made the bullying pick up. She started rumors about me. started this little war. She had to destroy me. I started eating a lot more due to stress and I gained a lot of weight back. It drove me back into my eating disorder and cutting. This continued on until this year. I have been clean from cutting for almost 2 months now although I am still battling my ED I probably will be dealing with this for a long time. I decided to speak up to when I was being bullied and fight back with words, letting them know it was not okay and their harsh words were not going to bring me down. I gave myself the voice I never had. Now that I am in high school things have changed. It seems that people are more mature. I still get my bad days but I know it will get better. So just know that you have to keep your chin up and speak up! Speaking up was the best thing I did and it really did make a lot of things better. Remember you are all loved and you are all worth it! Chin up, lovely!