Hangin’ with Hannah
Bullying is not Cool!
Hannah Swinnerton is a passionate advocate for mental health and works hard against bullying due to her own experiences from prep to year 12. In this issue, we interview Hannah about her journey and about her new group: Young People with a Purpose: You Are Not Alone.
What’s your experience with bullying? It started in primary school where I was bullied severely because of my size; I wasn’t skinny. I had people picking on me, calling me horrific names. The teachers did nothing and it just went on
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Supernal Magazine
and on throughout primary school. When I hit secondary college it was worse. Way worse! People were cruel, people were nasty, there was no escape from it. I got bullied going to and from school and after school. Because of social media I had people cutting out pictures of my head and sticking it on pigs and cows and then uploading it to social media. The bullying kept going and I’d just go home crying every night and lock myself in my room, because I couldn’t stand it. Eventually I got to the point where I couldn’t take anymore and I went to mum and said enough is enough! We went to the doctors and I got diagnosed with major depression and anxiety. The bullying kept going and going and, at the end of year 12, I was ready to give up on life. I went home one day and wrote a speech about how I felt, which I
read out at my school. Things changed a bit after that. When you were being bullied how’d that make you feel? It made me feel like I didn’t belong. Like I was just sad, angry, alone, frustrated, annoyed and upset. So, writing that letter let you free yourself? Yeah, well, when I was getting bullied, I would tell the teachers, but they did nothing, it just went on and on. Writing my speech really empowered me. After the speech, many of the people that had bullied me came up and apologised and that helped a lot too. What sort of support system have you had? My family. They’ve been really good; they’ve encouraged me to get support and been there for me the whole time, through school when the bullying was going on. Yeah, just being in a loving family has helped.
