A couple of weeks ago, I was lucky enough to talk to Lucy all about her experience with bullying and how she managed to overcome it and achieve her dreams. Lucy impressed and made an emotional connection with the Britain's Got Talent audience, coming runner up earlier this year. Lucy's magical, operatic style voice and her positive attitude to life had her signed to Sony Classical, her debut album 'Fantasia' released in September and touring next year with Collabro, Lucy has first hand experience of what it's like to go from feeling so low to feeling like the impossible is now possible after managing to achieve her dreams and live the life she's always dreamed about.
I
think it's extremely difficult to stop bullying altogether as there
is always someone who will want to involve themselves in business
that's not theirs, so I feel there should be more support provided to
help how victims deal with bullying and help motivate and empower
them.
So let's get started, we hope this helps you feel like you can achieve your dreams, no matter what a bully says.
Hi Lucy, can you tell me about your experience with bullying when growing up?
Mine
was pretty long and drawn out. It started when I was around the age
of 7/8 and carried on into my teens, I was subject to mental and
physical abuse due to my love for classical singing - it wasn't the
norm and my peers found it very difficult to accept as they were
brought up to appreciate more mainstream pop and techno music. I
failed all but one of my GCSE's because I was so badly bullied I was
very rarely in lessons due to hiding in the girls toilets or skipping
school in order to get away from the bad people.
How
did it impact your self-esteem and motivation in life?
It
really took a lot of my confidence away and subsequently made me go
into my shell and not wanting to come out. However having said that
my motivation only got stronger - I knew my passion for signing and
classical music was so strong I was not going to let them take the
one thing I loved the most, away from me. It made me work harder to
regain my GCSE's and A Levels. I was determined to move away and start
a new life - a new me.
I think it's great that in light in all of this, your passion kept you motivated and kept you strong. How else did you cope with it?
I transferred all the pain hate and sorrow into my music, I surrounded
myself with things that made me happy - that was singing operatically. Every time I opened my mouth to sing I was completely
lost and transported to a different world. I joined a girls choir
Cantamus way back when I was 8 and spent 13 years of my life singing
as a hobby and I have now managed to make it a reality.
Apart from your passion of singing to keep you positive and motivated in life, what
do you do to increase your happiness and positivity when you're
feeling down?
I
think about how lucky I am in all of this. There are people in the
world who would give anything to have a little bit of what I do. I
mean I have a roof over my head, I have a loving family and wonderful
friends, I have money, clothes, food and fresh water. That's how I
keep positive because I am so grateful to be blessed with such an
incredible life and really, I shouldn't have anything to complain
about. I make sure I do a lot for charities too, I believe we can all
do a lot more than is currently being done today.
I think that is a great mindset to obtain. On the subject of doing more for charities, do you think
the media are doing enough to provide support to victims of bullying?
I
think it's getting there but we are still a long way from where we
should be with it. The Anti-bullying Pro organisation are doing a
fantastic job and it's really becoming effective within schools.
Finally, what
is your advice to anyone going through bullying right now?
Don't
let them win and don't stay silent. Speak out and be heard - remember
a lot of bullying goes on because of the bully's background - they can
usually be experiencing a lot of bad things at home. They then target
someone that is more likely to back down to them - it gives them the
power and strength they feel they need to cope with their life back
at home. It's the only way they feel they can channel that negative
energy. I'm not making excuses for bullying at all but I believe a lot
of what goes on it due to parental up bringing or friendship groups -
no one is born with hate - it's a feeling that has developed.
So
what I would say to coping with that is surround yourself with
supportive people and a hobby you enjoy and are passionate about -
let that guide you through the bad times but whatever you do, do not
keep bullying a secret - you need to share what is happening in order
to receive help.
I just want to thank Lucy for answering these questions! It really means a lot
to me and I'm sure you, my readers will love this and feel inspired and motivated to be able to feel like there really is hope and a light at the end of the tunnel...you just have to believe and stay focused on what you love and surround yourself with positivity.
The main reason I started this campaign was to provide a place for people to come and feel safe, get advice, have a chat and feel better about whatever is on your mind, so please do not hesitate to contact me!
If you would like to know a bit more about my campaign, which involves anxiety, bullying, self-esteem, diabetes and many more issues, you can read about it here and if you'd like to get involved, all the information on how you can do that is in that post, or you can just email me if you have any questions!!
Thanks for reading!
Get in touch!
Email: ChloesConcept@gmail.com
Chloe x
she's so inspirational, bullying is such a bad thing and i'm glad she overcame it
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