A few weeks later though, the bullying escalated when a group of girls came up next to Manuela in the lunch line and chanted, “Fatty, fatty two by four, couldn’t get through the lunchroom door.” In response, Manuel stared straight ahead with her lunch tray in her hands, ignoring them as best she could.
One of the girls then pushed Manuela’s lunch tray up with the palm of her hand, spilling Manuela’s lunch all over the floor. As Manuela stood there picking her lunch up off the floor, the girls stood there laughing at Manuela before finally walking away.
The next incident of bullying occurred about a week later during assembly hall in the school auditorium. As Manuela was walking down the aisle way to take a seat, a girl who was a cheerleader for the school stood up and yelled out, “Move aside. Whale coming through.”
Manuela stopped, smiled at the girl and then asked her if anything was wrong. In response, the girl replied, “Wrong, I tell you what’s wrong. Your fat butt, that’s what’s wrong.” Stunned by the girl’s response, Manuela lowered her head and walked away from the girl while fighting back tears.
With each incident of bullying, Manuela became increasingly self-conscious about the way she looked, comparing herself to other girls her age. She found herself feeling more and more down about her body and weight, something she had never struggled with before.
One afternoon, after the last bell rang at school, Manuela arrived at her locker to find several magazines photos of models wearing string bikinis taped to the front of her locker.
When she looked closer, Manuela noticed that the models’ faces had been covered up by a photocopy of her face. Next to the photos, there was a sheet of notebook paper with the words, “Fat chance!” written in red marker.
Manuela left school that day in tears, hating herself and her body. The bullies had finally gotten to her as she felt like she was ugly for the very first time in her life.
For the next few months, Manuela became totally consumed with her body, spending more and more time looking in the mirror while hearing the voices of the bullies in her head, picking apart what she saw as being her flaws. It seemed like everywhere she looked, from magazines to the internet to commercials on television, Manuela saw young women who were thin with perfect breasts and a butt to match.
She tried a crash diet to quickly lose some weight, but stopped it after three days because she got really weak from the lack of calories she was in-taking.
Her position as editor also started to suffer during this time as she no longer had the passion she once had for writing as well as layout and design. She became very withdrawn, not wanting to socialize with her family members or friends. She felt herself falling into an emotional hole that she was afraid she wouldn’t be able to get out of.
Feeling desperate, Manuela realized she needed someone to talk to. Since Manuel’s parents spoke very little English and neither had finished high school, she felt they wouldn’t understand what she was going through. So, Manuela turned to the internet for help. That’s where she found Zeni Says and the inspiration she needed to help her deal with her situation.
After writing a detailed e-mail explaining all that had happened to her, Manuela received a reply from Zeni, the spokesperson for Zeni Says. Read below to see what Zeni says to Manuela.
Zeni Says
