Is this a little misguided? Well…yeah. What more do we expect from a 13 year old. I do misguided things. I’m 29. I’ve finally learned to say “screw you” to the people who jump down my throat every time I make a mistake. I say, let the kids make the little mistakes. Let them speak and realize the naïveté or ignorance of their words instead of assuming they have fully understood what we, the big bad adults want them to know. Cause guess what, they don’t get it. They aren’t supposed to.

What am I going on about? Check out this video.

I found it because of an article posted about a parent, horrified that her daughter made this. I expected the worst- but instead I was very moved. I see an insecure teenage girl— one who we don’t understand as troubled because she looks like what most of us wanted to be. She’s the conventionally pretty girl—but she is telling us she’s been bullied, she doesn’t feel good about herself, and now she’s resorting to putting a video on the internet asking the world to tell her if she’s allowed to feel good about yourself. To her I’d like to say:

Dear Faye,

Rest assured, you are a pretty girl. People are going to be shitty and tell you that you’re not, and that’s life. I’m sorry you’ve been bullied and I hope the people who’ve made you feel bad about yourself grow ugly, hairy warts. As a consolation- I was bullied quite a bit- and among other character building experiences, I’m a lot stronger because of it. But I know that it’s one of the worst feelings, and I sympathize. That said, please don’t leave your self-esteem in the hands of youtube. Trust your friends and the people who make you feel good about yourself, and rest assured that although life can be challenging as an adult, bullying is one thing that really does die down as you grow up. In other news, I hope you learn that there is other value in life other than the way you look. But I also remember, that at 13, there isn’t much that is more important. Set an example by making the people around you feel good about themselves and hang in there.

Sincerely, Bonnie J Sludikoff

To the people who raise the concern about “who is watching this video”—Yes, I get it. There are some crazy ass motherf-ers out there. But we can’t pick and choose. If you’re concerned about the pedophiles on youtube why are you only concerned about them watching these sorts of videos and not the ones you allow your children to make singing, dancing, chatting, etc? And as a note to the media and law enforcement people who I constantly see broadcasting this news- instead of telling people to hide, why don’t we do something by way of punishing the perps instead of punishing the people who need to beware of them? Just a thought.   Meanwhile, lets allow this new youtube trend to start a dialogue instead of trying to shut the teenage population up the way we always do.

Are we still wondering why so many of them attempt suicide, cut themselves, have eating disorders, act out by way of piercings, black clothing, loud angry music? Can we just f-ing listen to them like adults instead of making them demand our attention?   Really, people.