WEBVTT Kind: captions Language: en 00:00:00.122 --> 00:00:01.260 - I was 12 years old. 00:00:01.260 --> 00:00:02.444 - I was 13 years old. 00:00:02.444 --> 00:00:03.767 - I was 12 years old. 00:00:03.767 --> 00:00:05.947 - I was 13 years old when I was bullied. 00:00:10.225 --> 00:00:13.220 - When I was bullied there were confrontations in hallways. 00:00:13.220 --> 00:00:16.563 - It was pretty much directly face to face, verbal, contact. 00:00:16.563 --> 00:00:21.277 - I was being called a name from my so called friends. 00:00:21.277 --> 00:00:24.040 - Some person that I don't know slammed my head 00:00:24.040 --> 00:00:26.455 into the locker and called me a chink. 00:00:26.455 --> 00:00:28.382 And they just walked away. 00:00:28.382 --> 00:00:32.004 - I was dealing with a lot of, you know, acne problems. 00:00:32.004 --> 00:00:33.885 This guy, he would just call me pizza face 00:00:33.885 --> 00:00:34.814 in front of people. 00:00:34.814 --> 00:00:37.623 - I was just walking through the cafeteria 00:00:37.623 --> 00:00:41.617 and someone called me a faggot. 00:00:41.617 --> 00:00:45.285 It was kind of like my whole body had chills 00:00:45.285 --> 00:00:47.259 and I didn't know what to do. 00:00:47.259 --> 00:00:49.279 - They all giggled and laughed. 00:00:49.279 --> 00:00:51.740 And it actually was a word in Cantonese 00:00:51.740 --> 00:00:53.133 and I don't speak Cantonese. 00:00:53.133 --> 00:00:56.314 I think now I would say like, (speaks foreign language). 00:00:56.314 --> 00:00:59.356 What they were calling me was little fat girl. 00:00:59.356 --> 00:01:02.142 - This kid turned around to me with a Sharpie marker 00:01:02.142 --> 00:01:05.068 and for all the classmates to hear and he said, 00:01:05.068 --> 00:01:07.599 "Hey Zach, bend over, I wanna play connect the dots 00:01:07.599 --> 00:01:08.876 "with your face." 00:01:08.876 --> 00:01:10.919 - I was so embarrassed when it happened. 00:01:10.919 --> 00:01:13.752 Bullies made me feel so bad about my ethnicity. 00:01:13.752 --> 00:01:15.609 Like, I really did internalize that. 00:01:15.609 --> 00:01:20.137 - It made me feel like I wasn't as good as anybody else. 00:01:20.137 --> 00:01:22.505 - I didn't really know what is friendship 00:01:22.505 --> 00:01:24.827 if the people you think you're close to 00:01:24.827 --> 00:01:26.058 are laughing at you. 00:01:26.058 --> 00:01:28.728 - It was something that was really heartbreaking 00:01:28.728 --> 00:01:30.005 for my mom to see. 00:01:30.005 --> 00:01:32.606 I remember she just always looked so sad for me 00:01:32.606 --> 00:01:36.808 because I was just being myself. 00:01:36.808 --> 00:01:41.808 And me being myself meant that I was being bullied. 00:01:42.358 --> 00:01:45.423 - You just have this fear, in middle school, in high school, 00:01:45.423 --> 00:01:46.769 that you're going to be called that 00:01:46.769 --> 00:01:48.859 for the rest of your life. 00:01:48.859 --> 00:01:52.063 - [Voiceover] Now it's a word that I look back on 00:01:52.063 --> 00:01:55.291 and I use it to see how far I've come. 00:01:55.291 --> 00:01:57.759 - [Zach] You know, I realized that that's not who I am. 00:01:57.759 --> 00:01:59.500 I haven't been that since I was you know, 00:01:59.500 --> 00:02:01.172 13, 14 years old. 00:02:01.172 --> 00:02:03.308 - [Voiceover] No matter what people think, I can accomplish 00:02:03.308 --> 00:02:04.399 anything that I want. 00:02:04.399 --> 00:02:05.955 I was doing great things. 00:02:05.955 --> 00:02:08.416 I had great friends, a great family. 00:02:08.416 --> 00:02:12.038 - [Voiceover] I love my life and I am more than just 00:02:12.038 --> 00:02:13.362 a little fat girl. 00:02:13.362 --> 00:02:14.801 - [Voiceover] That word does not define me. 00:02:14.801 --> 00:02:16.543 It never did define me. 00:02:16.543 --> 00:02:18.075 I'm so much more as a person. 00:02:18.075 --> 00:02:20.263 - [Voiceover] I could be whoever I wanted to be 00:02:20.263 --> 00:02:23.073 and I was extremely proud of being Asian. 00:02:23.073 --> 00:02:24.559 - [Voiceover] I am great. 00:02:24.559 --> 00:02:25.627 I am happy. 00:02:25.627 --> 00:02:28.134 I am anything that I want to be. 00:02:28.134 --> 00:02:30.294 - There's gonna be a time where you realize 00:02:30.294 --> 00:02:32.546 that the thing that people target you for 00:02:32.546 --> 00:02:34.357 is actually your greatest asset. 00:02:34.357 --> 00:02:37.167 - I recommend building a support system 00:02:37.167 --> 00:02:40.371 and help each other learn that you are 00:02:40.371 --> 00:02:42.136 more than those words. 00:02:42.136 --> 00:02:45.572 - If you be yourself, you grow up to be who you want to be, 00:02:45.572 --> 00:02:48.219 you're gonna be a great person, no matter what. 00:02:48.219 --> 00:02:51.400 - You are so much more than any of the words 00:02:51.400 --> 00:02:53.020 that anyone could say to you.