Wales On Sunday

MEG’S BID TO BEAT THE BULLIES

- LAURA CLEMENTS Reporter laura.clements@walesonlin­e.co.uk

WHEN she was just six years old, Meg can remember her neighbours pinching her belly and making fun of her puppy fat.

In school, her life was unhappy as she was bullied mercilessl­y, and her teachers did nothing to stop it.

Even in adulthood, the bullying continued and she got used to men saying “sickening” things to her on nights out.

When she joined Twitter she thought she would at least be safe from the harassment there.

But as the misogynist­ic comments poured in online, she had enough and posted a simple message: “To the men who choose to call me fat online. I’d rather have the body that I have and the soul that I have than be an adult bullying people online. It doesn’t faze me; says more about you than it does me, babes, and the fatter my thighs the more dogs that can fit on them.”

Then she went to the shops. When she got back, her tweets had exploded and she had 4,000 likes and growing.

Her 1,000 followers had grown to more than 6,000 and the Oscarwinni­ng American actress Patricia Arquette had responded to her saying: “I’m sorry you are suffering the fools. Screw them.”

For a young woman who only joined Twitter last year, it was all a bit overwhelmi­ng and she has found herself as a spokespers­on for body positivity.

“I have pretty much been bullied since I was five-yearsold,” said the 25-year-old from Bethesda in Gwynedd, who prefers to withhold her surname.

“Children would bully me because of my hair, my weight, everything. It was embarrassi­ng and I just wore baggy clothes to hide away,” Meg said.

Aged just six, Halloween sticks in her mind when, dressed up in a bin bag and a witch’s hat, a neighbour thought nothing of pinching her tummy and making fun of her “puppy fat”.

“Why would you do that to a child?” she said.

“I didn’t even want to eat the sweets we got after that. School is always supposed to be a child’s haven, somewhere safe to learn with friends, but I’ve never had that.”

As she got older, things got worse and the bright and bubbly woman found she “couldn’t get a break”.

“I’d go out and groups of men would say really sickening things about me, about my weight or my hair,” she said. It was the same online but when Meg finally called it out, she got a huge reaction, though she was also accused of trying to make men “more despicable”.

No woman has ever called her fat on Twitter, she said, and her tweet was in no way a “man-bashing” one.

“This is my experience on my Twitter written by me,” added Meg, a proud supporter of the Welsh independen­ce movement Yes Cymru.

“It’s solely men online for me personally. I didn’t expect to be bullied on Twitter. A lot of the bullying comes from people with different political opinions to me. I think it comes down to anonymity. So many people who’ve been mean to me online are anonymous people who tend to be middle-aged men.

“For some reason, it always comes back to the same men calling me fat this and fat that. I’m a kind person, which makes me worth 10 of them. I’d rather be in a position where I can change my weight rather than be ugly inside.”

Meg is proud for standing up for those who have found themselves in her position and says comments from men like “real women have curves” are equally disgusting.

Meg said: “[The term] ‘real women’ is a disgusting thing to say for a start. Humans can look how they want to look, and they’re beautiful for it. It’s not anyone’s responsibi­lity to tell a person if you like how they look or not. It’s none of their business, and it’s not kind.”

Meg is a strong and confident woman and the picture that went viral was taken when she was at her happiest and entirely make-up free. Since the tweet, messages of support have poured in, including heartfelt thanks from others who have experience­d similar things, and also including a mother who’d lost her daughter through anorexia.

“That made me think it’s all been worth it,” said Meg.

“I feel like I’m winning against the bullies now. I feel really overwhelme­d but also really touched.”

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 ??  ?? Meg has been bullied all her life. Inset, Meg as a youngster
Meg has been bullied all her life. Inset, Meg as a youngster
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