Pretty Little Liars actress Shay Mitchell recently revealed that her Filipina and Scottish roots made her a figure of fun for some when she was growing up in Mississauga, Ontario. The actress stated that instead of dealing with the bullies she preferred to hide away from them. "Instead of going to the cafeteria, I'd say, 'Why deal with this?' and I'd eat in a bathroom stall," she said. Despite her struggles at school, the 29-year-old relied on her dream board to keep her moving forward."It was a corkboard in my kitchen, with pictures of the Hollywood sign and Gossip Girl because I wanted to be on a show like that," she said. Mitchell isn't the first actor to speak about being bullied as a child.
Rihanna
One of the biggest pop artists in the world today, Rihanna had to deal with colour related issues while growing up as her peers thought she was too "white.” "I didn't understand. I just knew I saw people of all different shades and I was light. Now I’m in a much bigger world," she said.
Taylor Swift
The star singer used to be bullied by popular girls in school because of her love for country music who thought she wasn't cool enough. However the singer managed to turn the experience around as it proved to be her motivation to write songs. In an empowering experience, Taylor revealed that the same girls later came in to watch her live in concert, wearing her t-shirts and asked for her autograph. “It was bittersweet, because it made me realize that they didn't remember being mean to me and that I needed to forget about it, too," she said.
Demi Lovato
Facing bullying as a child, left Demi Lovato with a whole load of serious issues. The former Disney star quit her popular show, Sonny With A Chance earlier because she couldn’t bear to see her body on camera and later admitted that it was all due to her childhood bullies.“I literally didn’t know why there were being so mean. I was bullied for being fat and stopped eating at the age of 12,” she confessed.
Miley Cyrus
Miley Cyrus too described her horrible experiences with bullying in school in her book “Miley Cyrus: Miles To Go,”“The girls took it beyond normal bullying. These were big, tough girls,” Miley wrote of her bullies who she also referred to as “the Anti-Miley Club.” “I was scrawny and short. They were fully capable of doing me bodily harm.” The girls apparently used to lock her in restrooms, insult her dad for being a “one-hit wonder” and challenged her to fight in the cafeteria and in the hallways.
Lady Gaga
Although it is her penchant for being strange that makes her stand out from the rest and has played an important role in turning her into one of music's most loved artists, her being different wasn't taken well when she was in school. “I was teased for being ugly, having a big nose, being annoying,” she said, adding that they passed comments like “Your laugh is funny, you’re weird, why do you always sing, why are you so into theatre, why do you do your makeup like that?’ “I didn’t even want to go to school!” Gaga admitted.
Winona Ryder
A few years ago Winona Ryder opened up about a life-altering incident that happened to her as a junior high school student when she s bullied by a group of boys who thought she was a boy. “Walking home after leaving the nurse’s office - and I’ve never talked about this - I remember pressing on the bandage because I wanted it to look more dramatic,” she said. “I had this inner monologue going of Humphrey Bogart, like, 'being roughed up!' I was pretending I was in some gangster movie. It was oddly my way of dealing with it, because if I didn't, I probably would have been really scared."
