One of my favorite things about being a Teen Vogue Ambassador is having the opportunity to be a voice for some of the amazing brands and campaigns that Teen Vogue Works with. Many of you have probably already heard of the Mean Stinks Campaign by Secret. If you have, then you already know how awesome its efforts are! But let me tell you a little bit more…
Secret decided to bring a focus to the problem of girl-on-girl bullying, because as they’ve pointed out, it’s different. In this day and age, social media has made bullying even easier to accomplish anonymously, from behind screens, and quite often, girls are some of the big culprits of cyber bullying. As Secret says on their site, “girls have become pretty sneaky, using screen shots, Snapchats, anonymous messaging, group chats, sub-tweeting, re-posting and even ignoring and excluding.” Girl-on-girl bullying shouldn’t be considered the norm or even be close to acceptable. No bullying should be!
Secret has set out on a mission to bring an end to girl-on-girl bullying and their “gang of good” has already created over 2 million acts of nice as a part of the campaign! I’m very happy to team up with them as well to give even more of a voice to this issue and show my support for their efforts!
I have personally experienced girl-on-girl bullying myself on multiple occasions, especially back when I was in grade school. Because of my own experiences, I know that bullying is something that can really tear you down, make you feel bad about yourself, and cause a severe drop in confidence. Wouldn’t it be awesome if we could put an end to this epidemic of girl-on-girl bullying and promote just being nice? (Being nice is so much easier than all that effort that goes into being mean and sneaky.)
There’s a publicly held opinion with Greek life, and sororities specifically, that it’s all rude, catty, and that hazing runs rampant in all chapters. This is most definitely not the case whatsoever. Hazing is considered a form of bullying and it’s punishable and considered a crime in lots of places. My experience with Greek life has been nothing but positive, so I decided to incorporate breaking that stereotype into my participation in the Mean Stinks campaign as a Teen Vogue Ambassador.
I asked some sisters from my chapter of Chi Omega to take part in the #ChainOfNice with me and take the Mean Stinks promise by sharing how they’ll spread the chain of nice and help to bring an end to girl-on-girl bullying. Check out their promises below!
Mollie: “Include everyone!”
Elle and Mary Margaret: “Kill people with kindness”
Christine and Allison: “Make everyone feel cared for”
Tori: “Leave people feeling happier than when I found them!”
Paige: “Make people laugh more”
Anna: “Make a difference in someone else’s life”
Elle and Mary Margaret: “Kill people with kindness”
Christine and Allison: “Make everyone feel cared for”
Tori: “Leave people feeling happier than when I found them!”
Paige: “Make people laugh more”
Anna: “Make a difference in someone else’s life”
We want you to join all of us along with Secret and Teen Vogue in spreading the #ChainOfNice! Print out one of the pledge sheets here and tell us what you’re going to do to keep the chain going and bring awareness and an end to girl-on-girl bullying!
A big thank you to the awesome ladies who helped me out with this post!
Mean Stinks!
