The Daylight Project
Maroon 5 has heart and a conscience. Adam Levine and the boys’ video for their hit single, "Daylight" brings together very brave fans from around the world who donate their image, their words, their hopes and their fears to the video for the track from the their latest album, Overexposed.
The video features the band’s music and footage submitted by fans from all walks of life who talk about their own personal struggles and what’s important to them. The video is a moving tribute to human spirit, experiences, difficulties and diversity we all face.
Check out the video and let us know if and how it touched your soul.
AC360 Shares the Life-Changing Experiences of Parents and Kids Featured in The Bully Project
An extraordinary documentary called "Bully" captured a behavior adults hear about, but rarely see: the way some kids pressure and relentlessly harass their peers. Filmmaker Lee Hirsch was embedded in several schools for an entire year. What he filmed was so raw and eye-opening that the project catapulted a movement, sounding the alarm about the critical and dangerous issue of bullying.
Something profound has also happened as a result. In the time since "Bully" was released, a number of kids and parents profiled in the documentary, and the filmmaker himself, have been on life-changing journeys, and in some instances have experienced remarkable transformations.
AC360° has dedicated the past year to tracing the course of their journeys and personal missions. We want to share their stories with you in a powerful documentary called "The Bully Effect," premiering on CNN on February 28 at 10 p.m. ET.
You are not alone.
I Was a Bully
It took me a while to finally be honest with myself, I bullied someone. It wasn’t something that I meant to do. I pressured into by my friends, and just because I wanted to fit in. It was a new school, which meant new people and no one likes being the loner, so I did anything to fit it. On my first day there, I met a girl named Diana. She was big, had a lot of acne but I was pretty sure that under all the acne she was really pretty. We started hanging and we even had lunch together. I was surprised she was hanging out with me, since it was like the middle of the school, I was expecting for her to be hanging out with her friends. Later on in the month I got more friends and they were considered "cool" so I decided to hang out with them a lot. Diana and I hung out less and soon my friends started asking me why I hung out with her and that she was a loser. I noticed that she didn’t have any other friends. And that she didn’t come to school a lot, her grades were also dropping. I later found out that my friends were bullying her and I felt that if I didn’t say anything they wouldn’t accept me.
Eventually I started calling her fat and ugly. We bullied her so much, and we felt so cool. The absents went from days to months.
Then came my birthday and I was planning on throwing a big party. My sister forced me to invite Diana because she knew what was going on, and she thought it would help. When Diana came, she was sitting all alone, but I didn’t care. Later on in the party she came up to me and gave me a "friends forever" necklace and both parts of the necklace were in it. Right in front of her I gave the other half to my other "friend." I didn’t think she’d care.
The new school year began and rumors had it that she had started taking homeschool, my friends even had a party because she left. Although I didn’t attend.
I was recently looking threw my jewelry and found the necklace. All the memories came racing back to me, tears started to fill my face. For the next few days, I tried to track her, so I could apologize to her and how stupid I was! I regret everything and wish it had never happened!
It is now senior year, and I no longer have those "friends." I now a have a best friend that also gets bullied by them and I realized that god gave me a second chance, and I totally dumped them for her because it doesn’t matter how she looks; if she has the perfect hair, body, or clothes. What matters most is that she makes me happy when I’m sad, and she listens to me as a friend. Although i just recently told her about my bullying story and I don’t know of she will be able to look at me the same way.
Karen Klein speak to Anderson Cooper about the fallout surrounding the bullying incident on the school bus in Greece, New York.
Wake up, world, and take a page for Jason Alexander’s book: when you apologize, do it wholeheartedly, eloquently, and intelligently. If your actions or words wound and offend, don’t just mouth off some pat, “Oh gee, I’m sorry, I didn’t realize,” remark and walk away.
Learn from your mistake. Strive to understand why your actions wounded.
What’s the fuss, and how does this relate to bullying? Well, on a talk show, Jason Alexander recycled a bit he did about cricket being a ‘gay’ sport, which had done down well in Australia but didn’t play well here at home. And we quote:
“The problem is that today, as I write this, young men and women whose behaviors, choices or attitudes are not deemed “man enough” or “normal” are being subjected to all kinds of abuse from verbal to physical to societal. They are being demeaned and threatened because they don’t fit the group’s idea of what a “real man” or a “real woman” are supposed to look like, act like and feel like.”
Alexander, although he had suffered the same taunts and bullying for behaving differently than his peers, fell into the trap of condoning bullying by buying into the stereotypes. Please take the time to read his entire apology, as it is an enlightened and thoughtful exploration of why his thoughtless routine brought hurt to others. It might help us all understand, the next time casual words have unintended consequences, and inspire us to make the same sort of genuine apology.
“I now get it. And to the extent that these jokes made anyone feel even more isolated or misunderstood or just plain hurt – please know that was not my intention, at all or ever.”
Ann’s story
Ann, thank you for sharing your story with Bully Confessions. We’re sure there’s someone out there grateful for your offer to listen, too.
I have always been on the chunkier side. My whole life I was bullied and even at the age of 32 I am still bullied. My dad always use to put me down and my friends and no one really wanted to be my friend because of my mean dad. It trickled down to my 2 brothers and one sister. They are ages 32, 28, 25 now and they still call me names and put me down. I recently was diagnosed with 4 brain tumors and I refuse to tell them because I don’t want them to make fun of me or laugh or call me names. I tell my mother 4-6 times a day NOT to tell anybody about my medical condition. It truly hurts! People need to stop and think what if that was them…. If you ever need someone to talk to I am here to listen!!
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