Things you have been bullied or ridiculed about

[Frenchboat]

My dc is starting school soon and has inherited my wild, curly hair. I'm worried she will be bullied like I was.

Having curls has made me feel ugly and ashamed all my life. I was called names and even had my hair yanked. I was called ugly. All because my hair didn't lie straight. I really hope things have moved on a dc won't go through the same thing.

So I guess I want to know what things you have been picked on about as a child or even now, as these things make you feel
Inferior, things can deeply hurt for years.How did you regain confidence?

BigDamn, I had the delightful experience of moving from England to Scotland too in my early teens. Bullied for being posh and English, when I pointed out I was actually Scottish, bullied for being from a different area of Scotland At that point I just shrugged it off as there was clearly no winning against such small mindedness and vowed to leave the area and never look back (which I did )

Prior to that, bullied for not wearing/owning/liking what the ringleader of the clique dictated. Lost it with her one day during a class project, everyone gave me a round of applause! Still one of my proudest, and most unexpected, moments

I have curly hair now, it must've curled with age as it wasn't curly at school. But I was a little bit fat (fat face) and I grew gigantic bloody breasts at 11 which I never lived down.

I was mostly teased for my colouring though - I'm just a quarter Russian but as a kid I was very dark skinned (not now, I faded). Naturally I can't repeat what I was callled, but someone wrote it on a group school photograph with an arrow to my head once.

I don't recall anyone being teased or bullied for having curly hair.

Too skinny.
Glasses
Buck teeth, later braces
Spotty
Generally just ugly

There'll always be something.

My god I was lucky. When I was at school in the 60's and 70's I was short, skinny, had freckles, red hair, hamster cheeks and slightly buck teeth but I was never bullied or teased, not sure how I got away with that!

So many of us were teased for being 'posh'

My mother used to buy me horrible clothes, and I had to wear them. I mostly got away with it in school due to uniform but I had a long, frumpy, calf length pleated grey skirt instead of the shorter A line ones that were fashionable in the 90s, which was pretty hideous and embarrassing. I bought my own school skirt in Year 10 (mum went MAD.) Also trainers and the like were never branded.

My name still remains a bugbear now truth be told.

Apparently I looked like a boy. It's nice to see that all the lads who ripped shit out of me are SO successful now......

If I recall correctly, I was only ever criticised for being too tall, willowy, beautiful, intellectually brilliant and socially scintillating.

I was a tall child and about ten pounds overweight. I was crucified during infant and junior school up until the third year because of it by two evil boys. Called fatty. Also my surname.

Solebizzz, sorry for being off-topic, but are you solesource?

Primary School:
-Being ginger
-Being thin
-Being poor

Secondary School
-All of the above +
-Having long hair
-Having short hair, when I'd cut my hair
-Being a swot/reading books
-Having a man voice/laugh (I don't think I had a deep voice tbh)
-Having no boobs/wearing a bra
-Having the wrong stuff
-Being tall
-Having a "bouncy walk"

Basically I couldn't do right for doing wrong at school and after about Yr9 I gave up trying, became somewhat alternative. I was a lot happier and found friends/boyfriend who were into the same stuff but I can't say school was a good time for me & my education suffered as a result of the bullying.

We moved in my last year of junior school so I started a new secondary school in a new area. I don't think my mother got any information about uniform because she sent me on on my first day with a boys school blazer and badge and a boys school tie on! The girls school uniform was blue and the boys was black and burgundy. I got mercilessly bullied and in the end it got so bad I went to a different school.
Never forgiven my mother for doing that.

Dark hair, dark eyes, olive skin .... wild curly hair too... got called ethnic slurs which rhyme with ike a fair bit.

Katie yeah I am.

Also for everyone on this thread!

Shellsuit are you me? I could have written your whole post right down to the bouncy walk!

Non branded trainers in secondary school! Hairy forearms in primary school

I had Saucony's when they were not cool. Only hi-top Nike's or Reeboks were acceptable. Dad point blank refused to spend more than $50 on a pair of shoes.

Being clever ('swot')
Being shy / quiet / unfashionable ('square')
Developing early / having big boobs (unrepeatable)

Reading this thread has made me realise that people will bully others for anything.

JE678 Ha ha! We should start some sort of bouncy walk club! It is good to know i am not alone in my experiences. Friends have gently told me I do have a "distinctive" walk; maybe it comes from being tall and walking fast?

Shellsuit high five from a fellow book loving, husky voiced, tall, bouncy walker!

Because my parents weren't divorced.

There were actually only three children in the class of 30 at primary school whose parents weren't together, yet everyone acted like it was some kind of moral failing on my part not to have had the good grace to have come from a broken home.

Being fat in primary school.

The awful girl who picked on my brother and then tried to pick on me in high school stopped quickly when I quite rightly punched her lights out in front of our entire class.

She never bothered me or my brother again.

I remember kids teasing our new teacher because she wasn't 'Northern' enough : this was in a Lancashire school to a teacher from Carlisle!

For having mobility issues
For not having friends
For not having good stuff. We were desperately poor. 4th hand uniforms,borrowed books that fell apart , school bags with broken zips that my mother sewed buttons into so I could close it.

It wasn't my parents fault but I am so anxious about all this stuff with my son now. Always making sure he has a full pencil case, brand new books,good shoes for school, making sure anything. He has to pay for in school is done straight away. Just normal stuff to anyone else I suppose but I fret about it all school year.

For having a health condition which made me look a little different to everyone else (I've since had surgery which has helped and now look 'normal'). The comments made to me and how I was made to feel has really affected me throughout my life. My self esteem is very low and I'm not at all confident around people, I think because I kept away from people as much as I could so that I wouldn't have to deal with the comments, questions or the looks which they'd give me.

Unfortunately my teenage son has inherited the condition and I know that the same comments are being made to him. He recently left school and his signed shirt and leavers book all contain 'nicknames' which link to his condition. It broke my heart to read them. He says it doesn't bother him but also says that he cannot wait until his consultant decides that the time is right for him to have surgery. He did actually sanction it a few years ago but the surgeon at the children's hospital refused to operate as he felt the surgery was too risky for a child (two consultants said it wasn't and I know that in other countries this surgery is carried out on diagnosis). The surgeon had me ranting and sobbing at him, as I tried to explain just how horrible life is for a child who doesn't fit in with what is considered normal.