It Gets Better

You’ve heard me talk about my middle school years at the hands of bullies. And the book I’m working on that is informed by a lot of that. Well, I recently stumbled on a project on YouTube called “It Gets Better”. And its amazing.

The “It Gets Better” project is geared towards LGBT teens who are being bullied and considering suicide. It was driven by a couple of guys who are gay and who finally realized that they CAN do something to reach out to these kids. They started posting a video of their own and encouraging others to do the same. And its awesome. I think its not only awesome for LGBT kids, but for ANY kid who is bullied. The message is the same. Just make it through middle school and high school, and those of us who survived that stuff knows that it gets better. You just need to hang in there. Sadly, one of the stories that led me to this was about a college kid who killed himself after videos were posted of him with another guy. For so many kids, both LBGT and not, college symbolized freedom, a move away from bullying. In this case it wasn’t.

If you haven’t checked it out – I would watch a few of these. Its powerful stuff, and definitely the kind of thing that makes me overwhelmed by the goodness of people, especially when faced with such ugliness. People in these videos are telling painful stories, but with the pure, passionate hope that it will reach someone and help them. Pretty awesome stuff.

Hug someone today and spread some love. Gotta balance the scales.