Four years ago, Katie was in first grade and she was bullied because she used a Star Wars water bottle at lunch. Other kids told her Star Wars was only for boys, and Katie was so impacted by their taunts that she wanted to use a pink water bottle instead just so they’d leave her alone. Katie’s mother, Carrie Goldman, wrote about the incident in her column on Chicago Now, and the internet responded with support for Katie. She learned many other girls of all ages love Star Wars, and it helped restore her self confidence.
In 2012, Katie decided she wanted to be a Stormtrooper for Halloween to support the 501st Legion. Members of the charitable group had recently been targeted in a mean photo slideshow posted after Celebration VI (a Star Wars convention). Katie’s mom reached out to the local garrison to ask for advice on how to make a Stormtrooper costume, and the 501st Legion took it upon themselves to make a custom set of armor for Katie.
That Stormtrooper armor is now being used to help another bullied girl. At Chicago Now, Carrie writes that eleven-year-old Allison loves Star Wars and Spider-Man and was mocked by her peers at school because of it – to the point of physical attacks. The school unfortunately has not taken any meaningful action against the bullies, but Katie and Carrie stepped into help.
Allison all geared up
A member of the 501st Legion reached out to Carrie to ask if Katie might be willing to pass along her Stormtrooper armor to Allison. Katie said, “Yes! Of course.” Katie and her friends wrote notes of support to Allison to go with the armor, and Allison suited up with other members of the 501st Legion the very next day.
Allison looks pretty excited to be in armor, and I hope she knows she’s not alone. Being bullied is a miserable experience but knowing that others support you and like the same things you like helps a little bit, and sometimes that little bit is what you need to get through. Hang in there, Allison. I know it’s not easy. Remember there are lots of people who think you’re awesome.
HT: Tor
For those who say stand up for themselves… here’s a couple of stories:
Sherman, set the way back machine for 1980s. I am of mixed race (father black/mother white). This was a CONSTANT reason for kids to heckle me in school. I was called ALL sort of names, beat up regularly, and such. I was scared enough that when the teacher would leave the room for something, I usually tried to go to the washroom at the same time, knowing that most of the kids in the room would start heckling, teasing, or out and out hitting me. The schools (elementary and middle school) did nothing to help and in fact said “I must’ve done something to deserve this”. When I did stand up for myself, the school actually made me the guilty party and the guy/girl who I was trying to fight against usually walked away scott free. My parents went to several PTA meetings being told I was a “problem child”. The bullying stopped when my family moved across country. My new high school still had a bit of heckling but I could tell it wasn’t being done with maliciousness (more like mild teasing) and took it in good stride. I made lots of new friends in my new community :).
Sherman, set the way back machine for the 1970s. My husband had people bullying him in middle school, mainly because he’s legally blind since he was 4 years old. Most of it was physical. One time he was pushed into the water fountain, broken several teeth, and had to wait TWO HOURS in the principals office while his dad came home from work to get him to hospital. The school said they didn’t want to send him to hospital with no parent. His dad was NOT happy and the school and the board did nothing to placate him. HIs dad wanted to call the police, but the school actually said “no, no police”. Finally they were called for another incident, and police told them “unless you know their last name, we can’t do anything” and was told to carry a bat. However, he was also warned that using said bat would be cause to arrest him for assault. His dad DEMANDED he be sent to a different high school upon graduation from middle school, and after some back and forth, the school board relented.
These days, we are seeing people bring GUNS into schools. Did you know that they even caught a kindergartner with one? What needs to happen is parents of known bullies and school boards need to take some responsibility and deal with this. Even check into the family situation of said bully and see if that is part of it.
Great Job 501st! Great Job Katie! Allison you are awesome!
Speak softly, and carry a big stick.
Whatever happened to teaching kids to stand up for themselves and being confident in themselves? Not that I support bullying but come on most of us have been so called “bullied” growing up but we knew better to not let it get to us.
Parents need to teach their kids how to stand up for themselves, or ignore the bullies and just be confident in themselves in general. The bullying will never stop no matter how many dumbass laws are passed, best teach kids to not be victims.
The problem is that this has gone from name calling to actual physical abuse. Some kids just aren’t able to physically defend themselves, especially if their tormentors are much bigger than they are and have more people.
Kids can’t defend themselves. Nothing one says to a bully does any good. And any physical fighting automatically results in suspension and the school calling the police.And kids can’t ignore bullying. It’s personal. It’s mental. Emotional. Physcial. And it comes in all forms Clearly you were never bullied. Which you are very lucky. But don’t post comments like this when you haven’t experienced it or lived through day after day.
Tommy’s right, and I was always an outsider. I started reading at 3, got b ullied a lot, and found only standing up for yourself works. You are wrong to tell Tommy not to post such comments.
Just because someone stands up for themselves does not mean they were not bullied. I was always the smallest person in my class. What changed my situation was one day when i ran home crying because i was beaten up my father grabbed me and told me i had to do something because of my size it probably wouldn’t stop and said he had my back if the school said anything. Lets just say the next day the bully learned not to bully me anymore. Because of my size it did continue i always had a new bully even past highschool because of my stature people thought they could, even now i am only 120lbs.
That’s what the administrators at my high school told a girl. She was arrested with a ’45 handgun the next day.
Charges and suspension were quickly dropped because nobody wanted to argue that she didn’t have the right to defend herself against serious bodily injury.
The moral of the story: if you’re a grown-up, act like a fucking guardian before kids take it into their minds to stand up for themselves with all the deadly force the law allows.
Like a little badass!
She made one fatal flaw though, those were the droids she was looking for.
Maybe if people stopped teaching their kids out dated gender stereotypes girls wouldn’t be bullied for liking “Boy” things and vice versa.
I wish I could say that this was an isolated situation but my niece Janice has been bullied because of her love of Star Wars, Doctor Who and Comics…not only has her things been stolen but she has been pushed down the stairs at school and ended up with two broken legs. She forgives the intolerance even if she doesn’t understand it but she is one tough cookie. She has not been able to go back to school as the school is not wheel chair accessible but she will still rock her bobba fett hoodie and her aunt rocks the chewbacca. She is the reason why goodness exists in this world.
Wow, I thought I had it bad, she’s amazing!
you are a legend XD
Isn’t she a little short for a stormtrooper?
To Allison and Katie,
You should never stop loving nerdy stuff, even if people say it’s for boys only. That’s is just ridiculous. Star Wars and Spiderman are for everyone. As a 20 year-old who has loved Star Wars since I was 4 years-old, I believe firmly that Star Wars is for everyone of any age and gender. Gender doesn’t dictate the movies you should like. Just ignore the mean people and keep being awesome!
I am approaching my 39th year this year, and feel compelled to write a response to any girl who is going through this type of treatment. I was also a “tom-boy” and loved playing with action figures instead of Barbie dolls. I was never really into the hair, make-up, shopping, and baby dolls things that keep getting marketed to girls, but was always interested in superheroes, Star Wars, Star Trek, and various other science fiction things. I also despise bullying in all of its forms as I too was bullied a lot in school, not just for what I was interested in, but also for what I looked like, and am still trying to heal from the wounds that the verbal abuse caused me. The only advice I would offer any girl going through this is to continue to love whatever it is that you love, and don’t worry what others say of you. If you allow them to influence and change you, then you allow the bullies to win. Also please remember if someone finds something to make fun of you with, there is always something you can turn around and make fun of them back with. Giving them a taste of their own medicine really does work.
Holy cow, that qualifies as bullying? I’m super sensitive to the special needs kids getting picked on, the nerdy kids getting beat up, and lots of others. But kids giving you grief over what kind of water bottle you have? That’s called being a kid. Buy a helmet, bc life is gonna get a lot harder.
If we aren’t letting our kids learn to cope with mild ribbing from other kids, or even getting knocked down or humiliated now and then, if we are going to coddle them and claim “Bullying” at every little hurt feeling, then we are setting them up to fail miserably in life. My god, you’ve done harm to this girl by not letting her deal with this the way kids should. Their is unfair criticism and harrassement in life. Learning to deal with it on their own is IMPORTANT. This is not bullying.
It’s easier when you are a guy to make this type of claim. You don’t know what it feels like to be a girl. We all have to fit into the same mould of what a “girl” is supposed to be, and if you differ from what is marketed towards girls, you are automatically singled out and being called weird or something even more hurtful. Words to hurt, and it does affect a person deeply. Bullying exists in many different forms, not just the physical shake-downs for lunch money. Believe me, I was verbally bullied severely in school many years ago and here I am, many years later, and I still have some painful memories and issues as a result of that treatment.
Also, it is important that these girls find out that there is nothing wrong with liking Star Wars or whatever it is you like, and that there are countless others out there who like it too. If I knew there were more out there like me who would support me in the way that this story told, things might have turned out better for me.
Excusing it as “kids being kids” is not going to make the problem go away.
Those kids need to be told to stop it, no doubt! I never said it’s OK. You can give her a gift and tell her those kids are wrong and I agree with all of it!!!! But labelling this as bullying is also wrong. It’s childhood. And she needs to learn to cope. I want to give her a hug myself and tell her what Star Wars nerd I am too!! REally!!! But I’m saying to the grown ups here, this is NOT bullying. I know what real bullying is. It ain’t getting teased about a Star Wars water bottle. Jeesh.
It may have been your childhood but it doesn’t have to be everyone’s! As an adult if someone does this we can avoid that person. They will be kicked out of the restaurant, fired, whatever. it doesn’t matter what you call it. We don’t force adults to sit through it; why pass it off as “part of childhood” when it happens to a child who has no way to avoid it?
Being teased for who you are and what you like IS bullying. A kid doesn’t have to be special needs to be bullied. Pretending that teasing, humiliating and hurting another child is a bully’s way to not feel bad about their own behavior. FYI — people who are bullied more are less able to handle criticism later in life. It’s like ripping apart an old wound. People who are NOT bullied are able to laugh it off.
Nope. Emotionally successful people develop coping tools, they aren’t kept in a protective bubble. If she is attacked, let’s talk. But this is about her damn water bottle. Get real. And I feel for her. But the right thing to do, the best thing for her, is not to give her the idea that someone is going to come to the rescue everytime someone says something mean. You clearly don’t know what bullying is. Her case is sad but it’s called childhood. WTF has happened to America? If you care for the kids, protect the ones who really do get bullied and let little girls like this develop emotionally. NOBODY wants to see or hear about a sweet little girl getting her feelings hurt, but guess what, kids are mean. It’s NORMAL. Shielding is not always good. Let her GROW.
Err, I suppose you consider “to the point of phyical attacks” not bullying?
No, like I said, I understand what bullying is and I have stepped in at personal risk a lot, and been beat up a few times for defending others. What I am saying is, kids need to deal with simple teasing and other mean kids themselves in order to develop LIFE TOOLS. I don’t see anything this article about physical harm. You are HARMING your kids if you can’t let them deal with the simple reality of teasing. This case IS NOT bullying and my heart goes out to the girl for being teased, really it does. But she should just do what all children need to do and deal with her emotions and deal with the mean kids. This is not bullying.
I’m going to hazard a guess and say you were a bully?
Not at all. I have been beat up myself for standing up for others. For example when I lived in Brazil I got the crap beat out of me whenever I tried to stop men from hitting their women (openly, on the street, usually drunk, and sadly, often). I stood up for kids often when I was young too. I am honestly thinking of this little girl’s well-being. Mean kids are a part of growing up and being teased for your brain, your style, your lunchbox, is NOT bullying. It’s normal childhood. She needs LIFE SKILLS, not coddling. When a kid hits her, or if it’s the entire school ostracizing her, then let’s talk about bullying. But a few mean kids poking fun at her water bottle? If you care about this girl, let her develop the emotional tools to deal with these situations.
You’re confusing “bulling” with misdemeanor assault.
To Alison, and Katie, and all the other kids that get bullied because others cannot handle how truly incredible you are~ hang in there! The kids who bully you are probably feeling a little jealous that you have the courage to be who you are, even if that means you are a little different~ don’t stop being yourself, and don’t let them get you down. Take it from someone who knows what it’s like to be bullied~ things are gonna get better!! 😀
We’ve to let kids deal with hurt feelings sometimes. It has to happen for a kid to develop normally. This is not even close to a case of bullying. Sorry.
Words hurt, bro. Sometimes more than a fist. And did you even read the rest of the article? The second girl was taunted “to the point of physical attacks.” That’s not just bullying, that’s assault. I feel sorry if you have kids who won’t feel comfortable coming to you if they feel hurt by someone, because to you it isn’t “bullying.”
Hey Allison. It gets better..it truly does..but in the meantime..when they bully you ..you let those weenie know….you got a whole LEGION of people who got your back. Who do they have?
btdubs….count me in with that legion
I’m not crying, my eyes are taking a leak!
SO many feels this is why the 501st is an awesome group
Situations like this restore my faith in humanity.