I Wish You'd Write Me A Letter: "Letters to a Bullied Girl"

It started with the story of Olivia Gardner. She's a teenager from California, who, like so many other teenage girls, was being tormented by bullies at school. There were taunts, threats, even a "Olivia Haters" website. Walking down the hall, she would hear "Die, Olivia" snarled by passing students. Olivia became suicidally depressed.

Then something extraordinary happened.

Olivia's story was mentioned in a local paper. When sisters Emily and Sarah Buder read the article, they couldn't stand idly by. They organized a letter writing campaign amongst their friends to send Olivia messages of support and encouragement. The resulting influx of letters, from former bullies and the bullied alike, became the book Letters to a Bullied Girl: Messages of Healing and Hope.

The Buders were overwhelmed by the response, and also by the lasting effects of bullying on the perpetrators and victims alike. The book has now been praised for giving first hand accounts of surviving bullying, and how to thrive despite the pain the victims endure. The book is the cornerstone in a grassroots effort to eliminate bullying, and the letters keep coming.

I've sat on this post for a long time, not finding the right words to describe it, because I was so incredibly touched by the story. I, like countless others, was bullied, scorned, and dismissed by my peers back in school, and the idea that someone, anyone, would write a letter to that hurt little girl I used to be makes me tear up even now. What an incredible gift to bestow on adolescents.

The subtitle of the book, One Bullied Girl, Two Sisters Who Cared, And Thousands More Who Opened Up Their Hearts says it all. People cared about Olivia, people who had never met her, but at one time, were her. It gives me hope for humanity, and for all the adolescents like Olivia, all the adults who were bullied in the past like me and maybe like you, and especially for the brave people who admitted they had been bullies themselves and now are reaching out with compassion to kids like the ones they tormented. It is an incredible testament to the powerful words "you are not alone."

I guess what I'm trying to say is that I'm glad I live in a world where this book, and the letter writers who made it happen, exists. And if you'll excuse me, I've got a letter to write.

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