I was mildly bullied throughout my whole school career. It was especially bad in elementary school. I then learned that I had two choices, one, to let them make fun of me and become a victim, or to embrace who I was and become a shield to other kids who were being bullied. Needless to say, I chose the second one when I was about 7 years old. It took time to brush up my mental defenses but when I reached high school, nobody could touch me. I had a aura that hey, you can make fun of me but good luck letting that get to me. The main reason why people made fun of me was because of how I dressed (I liked to wear colorful clothes and pretty sun dresses) and because I stood up for the other kids who were being bullied that couldn't help themselves. This lead to me not having a ton of friends but I did have respect because I wouldn't take anybody's crap. My mom and dad helped bring out the confidence in me. Even though I didnt have very many friends because I stood up for the "freaks and geeks", I have great friends now who love me because of that. Now today i am sometimes bullied by strangers because of my tattoos but i merely educate them and let them know how they are the weaker one for being a bully. We need to not try to stop bullying perse, but to empower the "victims" to not be a victim anymore. Once they have the confidence, the bullies are powerless.