Bullying is a serious issue in our society . No one, whether you’re an average everyday person or an A-list celebrity, is immune to its hurts.
Below is a list of 10+ celebrities who went from being bullied to rocking Hollywood. They didn’t always have it easy, but they most definitely got the last laugh .
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Priyanka Chopra Jones
“There was this girl who was a major bully ,” Priyanka told Glamour . “I think she didn’t like me because her boyfriend liked me, or some high school dynamic. She made my life hell. She used to call me names and would push me against the locker.”
Blake Lively
Blake Lively came face-to-face with her childhood trauma during an appearance on Sesame Street . She explained that as a child, the kids in school used to call her ” Big Bird ” because of how tall and yellow her hair was.
Tom Holland
A lot of people forget that before Tom Holland appeared as Spider-Man, he was dancing across Broadway as Billy Elliot . Tom admits that the kids in school used to tease him all the time for his dancing.
Niall Horan
Niall Horan, like his contemporary Shawn Mendes, was brutally bullied in school for his music.
Nowadays, Niall does his best to smile and take it with a grain of salt, knowing full well that he got the last laugh.
Madison Beer
Madison is a singer and YouTube star. During an appearance on the Z100 Morning Show , Madison said “I deal with this every day; I wake up and have been told to kill myself like 30 times already; it’s crazy!”
Bella Hadid
Bella Hadid doesn’t normally engage with internet trolls, but after one Instagram user left a particularly nasty comment — Bella felt compelled to speak out. She said that it’s not OK for anyone who doesn’t know her to attack her on a personal level.
Shawn Mendes
Shawn still remembers the vulnerability of posting his first cover on YouTube and being made fun of for it. When he arrived at school the next day, a group of bullies was waiting for him, taunting him to sing for them.
Emily Blunt
When Emily was a young girl, she used to be bullied for having a stutter . It took years of practice but she was finally able to get it under control.
Even after all these years, Emily admits that it still flares up, from time to time — especially if she’s emotionally drained or stressed.
Kylie Jenner
Growing up in the spotlight forces many celebrities to develop thick skin. Kylie said as much after admitting that she’d experienced bullying since the time she was nine years old.
Of her millions of followers, Kylie says roughly half are haters.
Padma Lakshmi
When speaking with People magazine about her childhood, Padma said, “One time somebody crushed an egg on my head and punched in the face — it was horrible. I used to be called giraffe and it just makes you feel so, so alone and so scared.”
Josh Gad
Josh Gad has been a champion for the anti-bully movement for years. He said during an appearance on The Off Camera Show , that he discovered at an early age how to use comedy as a weapon to confront bullying.
Lady Gaga
Gaga said that she channeled the traumatic memories of being bullied as a child in order to better understand the character of Ally in A Star is Born . She said it helped her to be vulnerable as well as authentic.
Rumer Willis
From the time that she was a teenager, Rumer was teased in the tabloids for looking less like her bombshell mother, Demi Moore, and more like her action-hero father, Bruce Willis . It was so bad that Rumer even considered getting plastic surgery at one point.
Kate Winslet
When Kate was a child, her bullies were relentless. They would constantly tease her for her weight , lock her in cupboards, and make fun of her for wanting to act.
After she arrived in Hollywood, producers told her she’d have a successful career — so long as she didn’t mind playing the “fat girl.”
Henry Cavill
Henry Cavill has chosen to view his experiences with bullying in a positive light.
He told People magazine that “Someone who is on the outskirts of popularity is someone who gets to look in. So I became very much an observer , and that taught me an awful lot about people.”
