Anya Taylor-Joy is speaking out against childhood bullying. Although she’s a famous actress now, the star was no stranger to being bullied as a child. In fact, she experienced bullying in the schoolyard and on social media. However, it wasn’t until she got the absolute best advice from her mother that she was able to overcome the bullying she experienced.
When Taylor-Joy was just a child, kids made fun of her because of her looks. Plus, she didn’t have an easy time fitting in with her classmates. Born in Miami while her parents were on holiday, she lived in Buenos Aires until the age of six. Then her family moved to London. The actress remained there until she moved to New York City at the age of 16 to pursue her acting career.
Since she was from another continent, many of the kids at her school in London didn’t understand her. As she told the Evening Standard, “When I was younger I didn’t really feel like I fit in anywhere. I was too English to be Argentine, too Argentine to be English, too American to be anything.”
‘I Used To Get Locked In Lockers’
Although the actress enjoyed her drama classes and was a straight-A student, she had a tough time with her schoolmates. Her classmates were more than just unkind to Taylor-Joy. They bullied her both at school and online.
As she said, “The kids just didn’t understand me in any shape or form, and I was really badly bullied. I used to get locked in lockers, you know, barred from classrooms, not invited to things. It wasn’t pleasant.”
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The kids in her school even took bullying out of the classroom and tormented her online. In fact, her classmates used Facebook to tag her in a picture of a fish. Apparently, the kids thought Taylor-Joy looked like a fish because “my eyes were really far apart—that’s a thing.”
‘Do You Like That Person’s Heart?’
The constant bullying took a toll on the actress as she spent a lot of time at school “crying in bathrooms or in books.” However, Taylor-Joy’s mom gave her the best advice when it comes to being bullied.
In a recent interview on The Drew Barrymore Show, the actress shared how her parents helped her overcome the toll that bullying took on her. “I was very, very lucky with my parents,” Taylor-Joy said, “because when I was bullied for my looks, my mom always said, ‘You look at the inside of somebody. You don’t look at class—you don’t look at anything like that. You don’t look at what they do for a job. It’s just, do you like that person’s heart?'”
While bullying can still take its toll, the words of the star’s mother are an important lesson for people of all ages.