Amanda Hocking

We have become a society of bullies.

The magazines, the television shows, the twitter, the youtube – so much of it is about making fun of somebody else. Most of the time, it’s celebrities, and we all seem to think that’s okay because celebrities aren’t people. If you’re famous, it’s automatically assumed that you’re made out of the same material as Barbie, so no matter what is said about you, it can’t hurt.

I am so sick of making people famous just so we can hate them. This whole thing with the Jersey Shore and the Kardishians. People never say anything nice about them, bitch about them being famous, and then keep watching the shows to keep them famous. It’s like we’ve been addicted to looking down on people.

(Side note: I do watch the Jersey Shore. But I watch it because I like Jenni, Snooki, Pauly, and Vinny. I think they seem like nice people, and Pauly is really funny).

Making fun of people has become a part of our culture, and I’m not expecting to change that. But I am sincerely asking that everybody stop with the kids – and I mean all kids, from Justin Bieber to Rebecca Black.

I just this really inspired post by Jensen Karp, who is a generally very funny person which is what made this piece so moving. I urge you all to check it out: Why My Daughter Will Never Have a Webcam: The Jessi Slaughter Story. (You should also follow him on the Twitter, because he really is hilarious).

But this is something that’s been on my mind for awhile. I actually wasn’t familiar with the whole Jessi Slaughter debacle until I read that post by Jensen, but I’m getting so sick of the way people talk about kids.

Take Rebecca Black. She’s thirteen years old. I want you to remember your thirteen-year-old self and how most of you would be thrilled to have a recording contract and also probably not be world weary enough to realize how terrible the song was that you were recording. You didn’t write it or produce it, and you don’t know enough about the music industry or even music in general to know that this wasn’t going to make you the next Miley Cyrus.

She was vilified in a way that is totally inappropriate and completely unjustifiable. She is a kid who dreamed of being a singer and sang a crappy song. She did not kill a million Jews. She is not responsible for the recession. She didn’t step on a puppy. She sang a song.

I haven’t gotten 1/1000th of hate mail she’s gotten, and I’m an adult, and I find it rough sometimes. I cannot imagine what that must be like for a child.

Really, honestly, Jensen said everything better than I did. So read his article.

But I beg of you, when it comes to kids, enough already. I don’t care if they’re in the public eye or not – most of them don’t even realize what that means. They’re just kids doing stupid stuff. And nobody deserves to be ridiculed, humiliated, and judged like that just for being an awkward adolescent.