What do Harry Potter star Emma Watson and The Blind Side, Oscar-winning actress Sandra Bullock have in common? Both these rich, famous, and talented women were once the victims of school bullying. Statistics show that one out of every four children or teens is bullied in school. Of course, one usually thinks of bullying victims as ordinary, anonymous kids from small-town, U.S.A. Or even Big City, U.S.A, one definitely does not think of the typical bullying victim as a rich celebrity. However, many celebs were bullied when they were young. A case in point is Academy Award winning actress, Sandra Bullock.
Long before she was publicly humiliated by cheating husband Jesse James, Bullock was "relentlessly teased because she spent a lot of her youth overseas and didn't keep up with cultural trends in the States." Thus, when the young Sandra returned to the U.S. after her many sojourns abroad, she found herself totally unfamiliar with the fashions, slang, and behavior that made kids cool.
"I'd come back to school from Europe and I looked like a clown compared to the cool way the other students looked and dressed," Sandra recalls. "So I got my ass whooped a little bit."
Poor Sandra.
School bullying was different for Emma Watson, however. Watson became the victim of bullying at a much older age for one thing. In fact, she was already a college student at Brown University. And she was already a famous star. Oddly enough it was her fame as the star of the Harry Potter films that led her tormentors to attack her.
Reportedly, Emma Watson "dropped out of Brown University to focus on her....career. But some believe it was because she was being mercilessly ridiculed by fellow students. Whenever she answered a question in class..., they would call out things like: 'Three points for Gryffindor!' referring to the school her Potter character Hermione Granger attended."
Although Emma Watson's negative experiences at the hands of bullies are somewhat unusual due to her age and career, what the bullies did was no less egregious. And the torment she suffered was no less painful. Both Emma Watson and Sandra Bullock are to be commended for overcoming their negative experiences with bullying and going on to become successful in their personal lives and careers.