Who would have known!

Now I'm the first person to speak up and say how I'm just not 'up' on whats new in pop culture. The television is rarely on in our house and we don't keep track of main stream media because, in our opinion, its biased and full of crap. Yes, thats being blunt for ya.

At any rate, I was doing some searching for music in Foxboro on google. I always like to reminisce on my past.

I came across a young girl named Joanna 'JoJo' Levesque.

I still don't know who she is, but I gather from her imdb profile, she's a big star!

She lived in my hometown for a long time, until she was 13 (2003). I never knew. What's even funnier about this is that she stared in the movie RV with Robin Williams and Shawn and I frequently joke about how the relationship between their two characters changed from loving father/daughter to her hating him. Shawn is expecting his relationship with Arianna to do the same.

At any rate, I came across this interview with her from 2002, when she was 11 years old.

What I find most interesting about it is this section:

While Joanna would miss Foxboro, she makes it clear she would not miss many of the kids at school. It’s a difficult subject for her to speak about, but she has had a great deal of trouble with the kids at Foxboro Schools.

After all, most kids her age love Brittany Spears. Not only has Joanna met Brittany, but also she sang with her and Spears offered her a record deal. Many kids drink Coca-Cola. Joanna recently performed for the senior VP of Marketing at Coke.

She is not a typical 11 year old, and that makes relationships difficult and invites bullying and cruelty.

“They can’t relate to me, and have a hard time understanding what I do,” Joanna begins, suddenly not so bubbly. “They pick on ANYTHING if you’re different. They say I act all high and mighty. It’s painful to come home crying home from school. I walk down a hall and someone will whisper, “Loser.”

I tell Joanna that as a kid who was also bullied, I well understand the pain, the loneliness, and the frustration.

“People make presumptions,” she explains. They think Joanna is a diva, and full of herself. “There’s even a Hate Joanna club,” she adds bleakly.

Diana is also less bubbly now—the teasing and isolation Joanna felt was clearly painful and continuous. It’s not the reason they are leaving – Joanna’s destiny clearly resides out west, but the teasing and bullying made life hell for a very sensitive and loving kid.

What can be done about it?

Diana is empathic. “Parents, teach your kids to be kind. Try to deal with your own insecurities before you tear someone else down.”

Has Joanna thought about suppressing her singing ability to better fit in with her peers? The answer is a firm shake of the head. “I would never deny my singing ability to fit in with kids my age. God gave me this,” she says, and she believes it. “I’d be so unhappy if I didn’t do this. I LOVE singing” She adds that despite the teasing, she does has friends, and a long distance boyfriend (their first date was canceled because he was grounded!)

My school peers did that to me too, only I wasn't famous, more infamous I guess. I think the Foxboro School system should do something about this phenomenon, an environment that invites the creation of "hate clubs" is not right. Its not fair that children go home from school crying (and yes, I did on a quite a few occassions).

Stacy has a great link on her site for bullying: http://www.ravendays.org/

I really hope I can keep Arianna from experiencing this, it's not something anyone should have to go through.