A Wonderful Story For You Parents

[vippy]

http://www.cnn.com/2010/LIVING/12/09/katie.starwars.geek/index.html

[hatcher]

Awesome story. Glad things worked out for her.

[Robzula]

This story kinda irritates me. A nerd gets picked on for being a nerd (something that's I'm sure has happened to a good amount of us here on FBTB) and suddenly she's a celebrity and gets a bunch of free stuff because her mom, instead of talking to the school board or something practical, whined on her blog and a cast member from the tv show happened to see it. It's really not the mom's "fault" since wasn't exactly what the mom expected and I'm glad they're focusing more on giving to charity than basking in the limelight but it just bothers me how people jump all over a story like this.

[onions]

you're just dead inside

[Draykov]

...instead of talking to the school board or something practical, whined on her blog and a cast member from the tv show happened to see it.

Actually, I'm pretty sure the article mentions that she spoke to school officials (hence the resulting "Proud to be Me" day). While I do think that "bullying" is the new black for cause-heads these days, it is a legitimate issue and I'm glad this little girl had parents who cared enough to do something and the resulting positive reaction is nice. In my household, the situation might not have resulted in more than a "well tell those kids they are idiots and you can like Star Wars or anything else if you want to, do you want me to beat 'em up" but I'm not claiming my blunt methods are the best.

[banthafodder]

I'm just glad that her parents were involved enough in her life to notice a subtle change in her behavior before it became a big problem. Kudos to them.

[Robzula]

Actually, I'm pretty sure the article mentions that she spoke to school officials (hence the resulting "Proud to be Me" day).

I read that as happening after the whole situation gained popularity, meaning she went to the blog first.

[meeotch]

Robzula, I was kind of (but not fully) in your camp initially. I agreed because I get kind of jaded about "fluff" news having extra importance added onto it because it's heartwarming (I, too, am slightly dead inside ), but I disagreed because, as a parent, I imagine that I would do everything I could (including writing about it on my blog, if I had one) to address / discuss the situation. As my kids are not yet school age, though, I haven't had to deal with it yet and thus am not really aware of what kinds of options there are for a parent to address this with school administration.

However, after hearing an interview with the mom on the ForceCast recently, I have to say, I'm really behind her. I didn't get the impression that this was true, full-on bullying. IIRC, the person that said something to the girl was her friend, and it was along the lines of "Star Wars is for boys." The mother's point of view is that, as the article states, the girl is adopted and all ready has some physical traits that make her a prime target for being ostracized. This mother wrote about the situation on her blog, the title of which is "Portrait of an Adoption." It's all about the day-to-day life of this family through the lens of an adoption.

This entire situation, coincidentally, happened at (for lack of a better term) the perfect time. There's a zeitgeist right now around the bullying of children, largely fomented by recent stories of some gay students being bullied or psychologically harmed in some other way, resulting in at least one suicide. The thought processes that led to some of these events are exactly the same as deciding that this toy is for boys and that is for girls. True, while the majority of children will naturally fall along those lines, some (like this girl) don't, and that should be okay.

The real story here, however, is that Star Wars fans rallied to let the girl know that it's okay for her to like what she likes and that she isn't alone. Most of us have endured taunts for being nerds. Hell, many of us here are adults that play with toys and probably still have sh** flicked at us from some people. I know I do, but I just say eff 'em.

In short, I really thought that the lady was a class act and I was proud to be a Star Wars fan when I heard the whole story as told by the mother. While this girl may be the face of the cause (which is never something I really like, like naming new laws after victims), this is something that many kids struggle with, and this story might give them the confidence to be themselves. It may have even gotten big enough to the point where many parents have heard about it and talked to their children about not bullying others, and that's a good thing too.

[Robzula]

Even though it's been said jokingly, I kinda resent being called heartless. It's not that I don't care about this girl or that she's gotten help it's that she's the sole focus here. Like Meeotch said (sorry to sort of take this out of context):

this girl may be the face of the cause (which is never something I really like, like naming new laws after victims)

I just don't like that people tend to focus on helping the individual rather than fixing the problem itself.

[meeotch]

On the contrary, you didn't take that out of context at all. That's the part that I agreed / still agree with you about. The girl is a mascot for the problem. It's just a consequence of human psychology that it's much easier to even imagine (let alone address / resolve) an issue when it is represented by a single face, rather than a mass of faceless nobodies.