Speaking OutChloe Bailey, Noah Centineo and More Stars Recall Their Experiences With Bullying

Millie Bobby Brown

“Internet trolls have never bothered me,” the young star told Harper’s Bazaar in November 2019. “I don’t want to sit here and say they do, because some people it genuinely does get to and I wouldn’t want to lie and say they hurt my feelings when they don’t. I honestly actually feel really bad for them because who knows what they’re going through.”

Before she was famous, Millie recalled her own experiences with bullying. “I got bullied in school when I was younger and I always hated the boy who did it to me,” she remembered at the time. “Then I realized he had a horrible home life and that had impacted really badly on his school life, so he took it out on me.”

She added, “That’s not to say that it’s not terrible and mean and not a nice thing to do, but you have to take into consideration that everyone is going through their own journey. As long as you accept that some people can be mean and spread a lot of hate, you just have to remember that you can spread positivity and love back and hope that they receive it.”

In an Allure interview from August 2022, Millie talked about her experience growing up while also being bullied online. “It’s really hard to be hated on when you don’t know who you are yet,” she told Allure. “So it’s like, ‘What do they hate about me? ’Cause I don’t know who I am.’ It’s almost like, ‘OK, I’m going to try being this today.’ [And then they say], ‘Oh, no, I hate that.’ ‘OK. Forget that. I’m going to try being this today.’ ‘Oh, my God! I hate when you do that.’ Then you just start shutting down because you’re like, ‘Who am I meant to be? Who do they need me to be for them?’”

“Then I started to grow more, and my family and friends really helped,” she explained. “It helped to be able to understand that I don’t need to be anything they said that I need to be. I just have to develop within myself. That’s what I did.”

Sydney Sweeney

The Euphoria actress addressed online hate in a May 2021 Instagram Live video.

“Apparently I am trending on Twitter right now for being ugly,” she said through tears, according to a clip reposted online. “I think it’s really important for people to see how words actually affect people. I know everyone says, ‘You can’t read things,’ and ‘You shouldn’t read things,’ but like, I’m a f–king person … People need to be nicer on social media because it’s really f–ed up.”

Hailey Bieber

“The biggest thing for me with social media was the battle of … for a while strangers made me feel like I had to explain myself, when the reality is, I don’t owe them anything,” said during a February 2021 episode of the Women’s Health UK podcast “Going for Goal.”

When it came to dealing with haters online, the model explained, “It took me a while to get there and understand that, because I’m kind of a perfectionist and I don’t want people to hate me or be mad at me … I just realized that there’s people on the internet that, no matter what you say and do, they want to just hate you because they are not happy with themselves.”

Madelaine Petsch

“I’ve learned the mindset of the people who bullied me very well because Cheryl’s been a bully on the show,” the Riverdale actress told Seventeen in October 2019. “I’ve learned that the people who’ve made the most fun of me as a kid probably had their own s–t that they were going through. And so they were taking it out on other people. And that breaks my heart.”

Shawn Mendes

“I was bullied a lot actually when I was growing up, especially because I was kid who played guitar and sang, but I don’t know, I think bullying is just —  people who bully are people who are just weak-minded and take their anger out of other people,” the singer said during a fan Q&A in 2017. “If you can get around that, you’ll always be a stronger person for it and use that as a strength in your life.”

Sofia Carson

“I didn’t feel cool by any means growing up,” the Descendants alum told J-14 exclusively in April 2019. “I was a nerd in school. I wore little glasses, always had my hair up in a ponytail, was very clumsy and loved to sing and dance. I just never felt like I belonged. I got bullied quite a bit. There was a group of mean girls who always picked on me. They thought I was weird, and they used to make fun of me.”

Sofia continued, “I felt very insecure during that time … It was really hard for me to deal with everything. In seventh grade, I left that school and ended up going to a different one.”

Chase Hudson

“I did struggle growing up as a child. My teenage years were really hard, and it’s you guys that keep me going and for that, I really just wanted to say thank you,” the influencer told fans during a TikTok Live in May 2020. “When I started social media, I started getting people that cared about me and as a high schooler and as a middle schooler and all that, I had no one. No one really cared about me. I was always kind of a misfit and very judged … and just kind of s–t on.”

Chase continued, “If I had no support or love or anything from anyone, I wouldn’t, I don’t think I’d be here.”

Kevin Jonas

“Growing up, I always did odd extra-curricular activities, whether it was gymnastics, pole vaulting, magic — those are not the things that young boys would see as cool. I became a target. Kids were cruel at that age,” he in the Chasing Happiness documentary. “It would break me down. I remember coming home from school and crying to my parents. I could never find the place where I fit in.”

Skai Jackson

“I used to be bullied over the years in school and on social media, but my mom has always just taught me that you are who you are, you can’t change it and you should always love yourself,” the Disney Channel star said on Good Morning America in September 2019.

Lauren Jauregui

The former Fifth Harmony singer told Hollywood Life in June 2019 that she used to let bullying get to her.

“It used to [bother me] when I was younger, but I’ve grown to a point of understanding that it’s separate from me and I don’t take it so much into consideration when I value myself, because I know who I am and I know what I offer. A person on the internet who doesn’t know me can’t tell me what I’ve been through or doesn’t even know what I’ve been through so they can’t possibly decide what I need for myself or project my energy like that,” Lauren explained. “Focus on the constructive criticism that the people that know you personally give you instead of focusing on what a bunch of strangers who don’t know you project to you about what they see.”

Ed Sheeran

“I hated primary school with a passion. I cried every day. I was ginger so I was instantly ripped into from the day I started school,” he told “Love Music Hate Racism” on YouTube in March 2019. “Ginger, had a stutter, wore huge glasses, just a bit odd.”

Demi Lovato

Demi opened up about bullying in her 2017 Simply Complicated documentary.

“Growing up, I had been bullied in school. And I felt like an outsider, I felt like an outcast,” she explained. “If I could go back in time, I would tell myself, ‘You will be accepted for who you are, and who you love, and the things that you’ve been through, people will still love you. Just continue to be honest and open.'”

Taylor Swift

“Junior high was actually sort of hard because I got dumped by this group of popular girls,” Taylor told Teen Vogue in January 2009. “They didn’t think I was cool or pretty enough, so they stopped talking to me. The kids at school thought it was weird that I liked country [music]. They’d make fun of me.”

Dove Cameron

Dove recalled her experience with bullying during a March 2016 interview with Yahoo! Parenting.

“Once a group of girls locked me in the janitor’s closet,” she said. “Another time a girl spilled chocolate milk down a dress I made. Girls would try to trip me in the hallway. Once in high school, on a field trip away from school, some girls brought razors to shave their legs and threw them at me and told me to kill myself.”

Vanessa Hudgens

“I had one friend growing up and I got teased for my big, curly, frizzy hair,” the High School Musical actress revealed to Metro in April 2011. “This girl used to always grab me by my hair [and] say ‘frizzhead’ and sort of throw me down. It was almost abusive now that I think about it.”

Miley Cyrus

“I went through a time where I was really depressed. Like, I locked myself in my room and my dad [Billy Ray Cyrus] had to break my door down,” Miley told Elle Magazine in 2014. “It was a lot to do with … I had really bad skin and I felt really bullied because of that.”

Lady Gaga

“I got really bullied. I had a nice group of friends, but getting picked on in school — it sticks with you for life, and I don’t think I realized how deeply it affected me until I started to become more successful. Suddenly there’s lots of pressure and you have to be a role model,” she said on The View in 2013. “I had to look inside myself and say, ‘Well, what do I have to offer?’ Because for so many years I felt like I didn’t have very much to offer. I think that some of the residual wounds, from high school, from being bullied, and feeling not good enough, I think it stays with you your whole life.”

Leigh-Anne Pinnock

The Little Mix singer opened up about the struggles she faced when she was younger.

“My primary school wasn’t exactly multicultural. No one else looked like me, I think my mum was aware of it. She used to straighten my hair,” Leigh-Anne told The Sun in July 2019. “One day, I remember seeing a bit of paper that one of the other kids had written on in class and it said, ‘Leigh-Anne. Age 9. Nationality, the jungle.'”

Bella Thorne

Before the Shake It Up actress found fame, she actually had to drop out of school because of bullies. She told Bustle in 2017 that she was picked on because she was a native Spanish speaker and struggled to read in English.

“Everyone was like, ‘You’ll never get anywhere. You’re just that dumb, pretty girl. You can’t have a job in this industry at all or in any for that matter because you genuinely can’t read,'” Bella explained. “Thank you, haters, because subconsciously, I guess I was trying to prove you wrong. And look at me. I did it.”

Ally Brooke

“It’s never fun seeing comments that aren’t nice about you, but what I try to do is remember that there’s always way more positivity than negativity,” the singer told A Conscious Collection in February 2020, about how she deals with internet bullies. “I try to focus on the good comments that I see and the love I get from my fans, old and new. It’s a choice I make to not let people get the best of me.”