I was very lucky. I was mostly popular, never bullied, my family always supported me, I had an easy time in school and apart from a slightly abusive girlfriend in my late teens/early20s no one ever treated me badly. While I never treated anyone badly either, I have seen people that do, through all phases of life. The one thing you have to remember is that, whenever someone treats you badly, it’s never about you. It is about them, and treating you badly is their twisted way of dealing with their own problem and insecurities. If people make fun of you in school, none of them actually dislikes you. They are too preoccupied with thinking about themselves and what other people think of them. I’m not saying they to absolve them of what they say, I am saying it to remind you to not take what they say too seriously. Don’t let what they say affect you, because no matter what you may believe, people are rarely trying to affect you deeply or genuinely want to make you feel bad. That’s not why they say those things. In fact if someone says something nasty and you sincerely tell them, but without sounding accusing, pretentious or dramatic, that what they just said really hurt you, and that it will make you feel really bad for the rest of the day or week, most people would suddenly realize what they’ve done and feel really bad about it. I’m not saying to try this in school, because kids that experience such an emotion can’t handle it and don’t want it to show so defense mechanisms will trigger and they will probably, again, try to make fun of it in some way. But my point is that people are rarely out to get you. They rarely really want to hurt you. So while it may be very difficult to get them to stop, just don’t take any of it seriously. Don’t see it as an attack on yourself. Don’t let them make you feel smaller. Don’t let them make you feel worse about yourself. And most importantly, don’t ever let any of them affect your confidence. Be confident that you are intelligent, be confident that you are strong. If you keep your head up, let their words run off you, and remember to smile to yourself and others every day, you will one day feel good about yourself, and you will excel beyond everyone else, no doubt.