A little bit earlier this week, while I was on Facebook, I came across this video. It's a man narrating part of his childhood along with some animations. He talks about his personal experience being bullied and then how it can affect everyone. It's one long poem and it is extremely powerful. It really connects to anyone listening, even if you haven't really been bullied much like me, it still brings out the memories of when people were mean. It made me feel terrible at first but then he gets to the part where he becomes encouraging and it brings tears to my eyes. His words and the way he speaks reaches out and touches whomever's listening. One quote from this that I love is "and if you can't see anything beautiful about yourself, get a better mirror. Look a little closer. Stare a little longer. Because there's something inside you that made you keep trying despite everyone who told you to quit."
When I clicked on the link it took me to this website, Upworthy.com. I started looking around after watching this video a few times and found so many stories that are inspirational or sad or make me want to get out into the world and do something. I go on Upworthy a lot now to see different stories and what's going on in the world. It's kind of like a newspaper for more social issues.
Another video I saw and liked was one where they had a forensic composite artist, someone who draws the faces of suspects after somebody describes that person, come in and have people describe themselves to him without having him look at them. Once he did this, they brought in other people that had just met the person recently drawn and had them describe the original person. What they found out was that when people described themselves, they took the flaws that they saw in themselves and emphasized that, making them look worse than they are. When the stranger described them, the sketch looks much prettier and open and more friendly than when the woman described herself. This was another very powerful video as it showed that women usually focus on what they believe is wrong with them, while other people look at the beauty in them.
Here's the bullying video
And here's the video about the drawings
