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There are a lot of very unhappy people in this world and for them, the only way that they can feel better about themselves is to pick on someone else. You know the type of people we’re talking about. We call them bullies, and almost everyone has been the target of a bully at some stage in their life. For most people, the bullying takes place in school and these days it can take on several forms. We no longer just have to deal with name-calling and pushing around on the playground, these days, bullies can hide behind a computer and make their target’s life miserable via social media. It’s not easy to deal with bullies and every year there are many victims who kill themselves because they feel pushed to the limit.
Being talented, pretty, or different can make you a prime target for bullies; who will often pick on people who they secretly think are better than them.
The celebs on today’s list were all victims of bullies at some stage in their lives, but they also all got the best revenge. They didn’t let their haters get the best of them. They persevered until they became rich and famous!
Megan Fox Ate Lunch In The Bathroom To Avoid Her Bullies
Megan Fox knew that she wanted to be an actress from an early age, but unfortunately, that also made her a target for jealous school bullies.
In middle school, Megan was very shy and struggled to make girlfriends, so therefore most of her friends were boys. This didn’t make her very popular with the girls and to avoid their taunts she would often eat her lunch in a bathroom stall.
"I've always gotten along better with boys. That rubbed some people the wrong way. I was not, ever for a second, popular. Everyone hated me, and I was a total outcast, my friends were always guys, I have a very aggressive personality, and girls didn't like me for that. I've had only one great girlfriend, my whole life."
Eminem Wrote A Song Calling His Bully Out By Name
Just imagine how the guy who used to beat up Marshall Mathers AKA Eminem must have felt when the rapper wrote a song which included not only a story about being bullied but the perpetrator's name as well!
Marshall would often try and join in lunchtime freestyle rap battles, but because he was white, his peers mocked him for this and bullied him. But he got his own sweet revenge when he released his 1999 album The Slim Shady. In the song ‘Brain Damage’ he speaks about one particular incident and called one of the bullies out by name.
The verse begins: "Way before my baby daughter Hailey/I was harassed daily by this fat kid named D'Angelo Bailey/An eighth grader who acted obnoxious, cause his father boxes/so everyday he'd shove me in the lockers/One day he came in the bathroom while I was pissin'/And had me in the position to beat me into submission/He banged my head against the urinal til he broke my nose".
Michelle Trachtenberg’s Peers Were Jealous Of Her Achievements
As a child, Michelle Trachtenberg was featured in more than 100 commercials and landed her first credited role as Nona F. Mecklenberg on the Nickelodeon series The Adventures of Pete & Pete at the age of 8. By the time she was in high school Michelle was already a well-known actress, but her peers were jealous of her success.
During a party, she went to the bathroom only to find the house empty when she came out. Everyone, including the boy she had a crush on, had moved outside where they were waiting for her to come out. When she did, they stood around her laughing and calling her names.
But she says that her successful career is the best revenge and these days she does PSAs and speaks out against bullying whenever she can.
Winona Ryder’s Bullies Later Asked For Her Autograph, And She Told Them To Go...
Winona Ryder’s family moved around a lot while she was growing up and that meant that as the “new girl” she was often an easy target for bullies.
When she was ten years old, she started at a new junior high and during the first week, she was bullied by a group of kids who mistook her for an effeminate boy.
"I was wearing an old Salvation Army shop boy’s suit. As I went to the bathroom, I heard people saying, ‘Hey, faggot’. They slammed my head into a locker. I fell to the ground and they started to kick the shit out of me. I had to have stitches. The school kicked me out, not the bullies..."
But she got the last laugh. "Years later, I went to a coffee shop and I ran into one of the girls who’d kicked me, and she said, ‘Winona, Winona, can I have your autograph?’ And I said, ‘Do you remember me? Remember in seventh grade you beat up that kid?’ And she said, ‘Kind of’. And I said, ‘That was me. Go f*** yourself.’"
Sandra Bullock Was Picked On For Her Clothing
As a child, Sandra Bullock and her younger sister would often travel between their home in Virginia and Germany to watch their mother Helga perform in the opera. She says that this constant back and forth left her with little sense of what clothing was fashionable at the time and as a result the kids in her school would often pick on her for wearing frumpy German clothing.
"I'd come back (to school) from Europe and I looked like a clown compared to the cool way the other students looked and dressed. So I got my ass whooped a little bit. Kids are mean, and the sad thing is that I can still remember the first and last names of every one of those kids who were mean to me!" she said.
Christian Bale’s Early Success Made Him A Target for Bullies
Christian Bale appeared in his first commercial at the age of 9 and when he was 12 Steven Spielberg picked him from a group of more than 4,000 young actors to play the role of Jim Graham in Empire of the Sun.
His performance won him the Young Artist Award for Best Young Actor in a Motion Picture and the National Board of Review Award for Outstanding Juvenile Performance and made him famous overnight. But the attention was unnerving for the young Bale and his fame caused major problems for him at school.
"It was not a great time, “ he said. "I was a victim of bullying and had other kids kicking and punching me every day. It was an early lesson in how making a film can set you apart. If you don't want to live with the consequences, then don't make the film. But that didn't help at the time. I was confused about other people's reactions to me, both good and bad. It can mess anyone up.”
The Girls Who Snubbed Taylor Swift Later Became Her Fans
Taylor Swift didn’t have an easy time in junior high and the reason that she was singled out was her love for country music which her peers thought was weird.
“Junior high was actually sort of hard because I got dumped by this group of popular girls,” she said. “They didn’t think I was cool or pretty enough, so they stopped talking to me.”
But in the ninth grade, Swift landed a record deal and a year later she was asked to perform at the school where she had endured the bullying. And the girls who had snubbed her were there.
“They showed up, wearing my T-shirts and asking me to sign their CDs,” she explained. “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. Really, if I hadn’t come home from school miserable every day, maybe I wouldn’t have been so motivated to write songs. I should probably thank them!”
Classmates Told Miley Cyrus She’d Never Amount To Anything
Miley Cyrus shared details about her experiences with bullies in her autobiography Miles to Go. Her classmates constantly teased her about her family and called her dad “ a one hit wonder” and told her that she would never amount to anything – just like him.
"The girls took it beyond normal bullying. These were big, tough girls," she said. "I was scrawny and short. They were fully capable of doing me bodily harm."
They locked her in the bathroom, cursed at her and challenged her to fight them and it wasn’t until the principal finally intervened that Miley found the courage to stand up to her tormentors.
“What could they do to me? I was surrounded by people. I stood up, still a foot shorter than they were, and said, 'What's your problem? What did I ever do to you?'"
Jennifer Lawrence Had To Change Schools Several Times Due To Bullying
It’s difficult to imagine that Hunger Games heroine Jennifer Lawrence was ever unpopular, but this Hollywood A-lister had a tough time at school. She even had to change schools several times just to escape her haters.
Once, while in middle school, one particularly mean girl gave Jennifer invitations to hand out in class, to a party that she was not invited to. “But that was fine,” she said. “I just hocked a loogie on them and threw them in the trash can. Don’t worry about the bitches — that could be a good motto, because you come across people like that throughout your life,” she added.
The best revenge is to live a good life and Jennifer has clearly done much better for herself than any of her bullies. Go J-Law!
Drake Was Picked On For Being Black And Jewish
Today no one would dare pick on famous rapper Drake, especially about his religion or race, but it wasn’t always like that. He says that growing up black and Jewish was very difficult for him.
Drake was born to Jewish-Canadian mother and an African-American father and at his school, kids would often call him a “schvartze,” a derogatory Yiddish word for black. He says, “I went to a Jewish school, where nobody understood what it was like to be black and Jewish. When kids are young it’s hard for them to understand the make-up of religion and race.”
But these days his haters prefer to pretend like it never happened. “The same kids that made fun of me are super proud [of me] now,” he says. “And they act as if nothing happened.”
Tom Cruise Was Always The New Kid (And A Prime Target For Bullies)
Well known for his roles in films like Top Gun and the Mission Impossible series he’s one of Hollywood’s top-grossing actors and if his name is on a movie poster you can be sure people will go see it. But there was a time in his life when he even Tom felt alienated from the world.
As a child, his father moved the family around constantly as he tried to find work and this meant that Tom was changing schools all the time. “I was always the new kid with the wrong shoes, the wrong accent. I didn’t have the friend to share things with and confide in.”
He had to deal with new bullies all the time as well and although he hated it, he says it taught him to stand up for himself. “Your heart’s pounding, you sweat, and you feel like you’re going to vomit. I’m not the biggest guy, I never liked hitting someone, but I know if I don’t hit that guy hard he’s going to pick on me all year. I go, ‘You better fight.’ I just laid it down. I don’t like bullies.”
Bullies Picked On Mila Kunis For Her Looks
Black Swan actress Mila Kunis is living her dream life. She’s a hot Hollywood actress, married to Ashton Kutcher, and they have two gorgeous kids. Looking at her now it’s hard to believe that when she was in school kids teased her about her appearance.
“I had a very funny-looking face when I was little,” she said. “I had like big eyes, big lips, big ears. But when I was little I was constantly being made fun of for having big eyes and that was awful.” But she says she’s managed to let it go. “I’ve learned it wasn’t a bad thing to be picked on because when you’re little it seems awful like it’s the end of the world. I grew into my face.”
You certainly did Mila!
Eva Mendes Encourages Others To Stand Up To Their Bullies Like She Did
Today she is one of Hollywood’s leading ladies, but there was a time when beautiful Eva Mendes was attacked by bullies on an almost daily basis.
“I was a gawky, skinny girl with big teeth and that made me an easy target. I had two bullies and they tortured me all through junior high school,” she explained.
The two bullies made her life miserable, but she finally found the courage to stand up to them and was surprised by what happened next.
“Only later could I see that I was showing them my fear and that’s what they were pouncing on,” she said. “When I finally stood up to my bully, that’s when things changed for me.” Today she uses her fame to encourage others to stand up for themselves as well.
Kate Winslet’s School Yard Nickname Was “Blubber”
Bullies love to tease people about their weight because they know it’s a sore point for most overweight people. And for Oscar-winning actress Kate Winslet it was no different.
When Kate was at school, her bullies called her “Blubber” and teased her about her acting ambitions. They told her that no one would ever fancy her because she was too fat and even her coaches told her that she would have to settle for “fat girl” roles if she really wanted to become an actress.
This affected her self-confidence deeply, but she never gave up on her dreams and kept trying until she eventually landed the iconic role of Rose in Titanic, which became the second highest grossing film of all time. And we’re sure all those haters saw that movie too!
Chris Rock Says His Bullies Made Him Tough
Funnyman Chris Rock grew up in Bed-Stuy, one of the most famous ghettos in the world. As a skinny kid, he was often picked on by a group of boys who threw him down flights of stairs and spit in his face. But he says the experience made him a stronger person and pushed him to succeed, although he adds that he couldn’t have done it without his parents love and support.
“Bullying without love? You can be destroyed. But you know, I was bullied and I had love at home, so that was kind of the perfect storm for me, you know? I just read the Steve Jobs book. There’s no way you can tell me that guy wasn’t beat up in school! And what happened? He used that pain to make sure he’d be in a position where he would never be bullied again.”
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