When I was in college, two girls I went to Pepperdine with started the Kind Campaign, a campaign dedicated to ending girl-on-girl bullying. Today, they have turned Kind Campaign into a world-wide campaign that spreads kindness, love and awareness. Side-note - go check them out, join the movement and start spreading kindness.
I have to be honest, while I've been bullied, I've also bullied. It's something I'm not proud of, but the reality of it is that most girls in their life have been the cause and the victim. But the best part, we can change it. We have the power to change it and change the lives of young girls and boys everywhere.
Did you know:
- One out of every four students (22%) report being bullied during the school year.
- 19.6% of high school students in the US report being bullied at school in the past year.
- 14.8% reported being bullied online
- 64 percent of children who were bullied did not report it; only 36 percent reported the bullying
- More than half of bullying situations (57 percent) stop when a peer intervenes on behalf of the student being bullied.
- School-based bullying prevention programs decrease bullying by up to 25%.
- The reasons for being bullied reported most often by students were looks (55%), body shape (37%), and race (16%)
- Students who experience bullying are at increased risk for depression, anxiety, sleep difficulties, and poor school adjustment
- Students who bully others are at increased risk for substance use, academic problems, and violence later in adolescence and adulthood.
- Students who experience bullying are twice as likely as non-bullied peers to experience negative health effects such as headaches and stomachaches.
Don't those statistics make you feel crazy? Don't those statistics scare you? I don't have kids yet but it terrifies me to think that one day when I do, they'll have these odds stacked against them.
This is why World Kindness Day is so huge. We have to help kids feel loved and encouraged and accepted! Today I'm vowing to complete a random act of kindness every hour (that I'm awake). Be that a text, a phone call, a hug. It's our job to spread kindness and it's so easy!
I hope you join me in spreading kindness, it's the simplest thing but it's so overlooked. Let's dedicate today (and everyday) to being kind.
What are you doing to spread kindness?
Thank you for spreading the word about world kindness day! Especially the statistics about bullying. I wish more people were concerned about this.
ReplyDeleteSo, cool! I had no idea today was world kindness day. I've definitely been inspired to do a random act of kindness.
ReplyDeleteawesome post! tomorrow i will do a random act of kindness! =)
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