Name: Demi Lovato on Being Bullied as a Teenager
Uploaded: 2021-03-27T17:09:39.000Z
Description: Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Demi Lovato on Being Bullied as a Teenager' from PowerfulJRE on Comedy Buff. Published 2021-03-27. Transcript available.

Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Demi Lovato on Being Bullied as a Teenager' from PowerfulJRE on Comedy Buff. Published 2021-03-27. Transcript available.

The Joe Rogan experience the perils of becoming famous when you're young are
well known right it's no one is really there's made a small handful of people
that have made it through unscathed it's a it's a weird way to grow up because
everybody else grows up trying to prove their worth or trying to find their
place in life and trying to you know get people to understand who they are
you grow up where basically most people who run into you know who you are
before you knew who they are and they're they're already like kind of freaked
out that you're there and they'll do anything for you and they want to see you
and they want to see you perform they just want to see you sing and talk and it's
a very strange way to grow up right what did did you at any point in time have
this feeling like hey maybe this isn't the best way to grow up
so I grew up in Texas Dallas Texas um I keep forgetting we're in Texas Dallas
um but I I grew up you know I went to public school except for the one year
that I homeschooled on Barney and Friends and I experienced um bullying pretty
bad while I was there and so I ended up leaving public school
and I went into a really depressive state for a period of time I didn't you
know when you're 12 and you're bullied that's your social life like your social
life is everything to you and so um I felt like I didn't have much to look
forward to anymore except for my music and music kind of kept me alive so it's
not that like I ever looked at the industry as
um this kind of weird burden on my teenage years or whatever like yes it it is
weird in hindsight but
I looked at it as it actually kind of saved my life um at times because it gave
me something to live for and I
knew that if I stayed in Texas that um I wouldn't make it out alive the
bullying was that bad yeah the bullying was
that bad but it's just they knew that you had been on television already so was
that part of the reason
why they were bullying you so when I asked them like why are you guys so it all
started with like
I wrote a note you know you're in sixth seventh grade you're passing notes back
and forth and I called
someone this other girl like called her annoying and said she was being a bitch
right and then that
escalated to by the end of the day I it was that like scene in the movie where
you walk in the lunchroom
and everyone just looks at you because the thing was is like the girls that I
wrote that about were the
popular girls and so it just like anyone who wanted to be popular took their
side and everyone just was
like I don't know so I had a concert that weekend on a military base and I went
to like Vegas for the the concert or
something and when I came back it just had increased and so when I asked them
like why are you guys doing this I
wrote a note we all write notes in school we're in seventh grade that's what we
do and they were just like well you're a
whore and you're fat and so I internalized what they were saying and that's
what my eating disorder
developed and I couldn't I mean I wasn't a whore um I believe you yeah it is so
crazy how
children have this instinct to pile on to people like that though it's bullying
is it's more common
than not right well and you have to understand is my generation was like the
first with social media so
what I was really um dealing with was the cyber bullying of everything it wasn't
I had wished that
someone had tried to fight me because I'm a fighter and so I would have thrown
down but they were coming
at me with words that scarred me emotionally for years to come and ended up you
know scarring me for the
rest of my life um and I I kept saying to people who didn't understand cyber
bullying like I wish that
someone had just hit me and gotten it over with because at least I wouldn't
have to live with those
words that they said to me for years and that's what was the hardest part um
was the emotional trauma
of like of all of it and which made it hard to meet fans my age because I had
just been bullied three
years before by people my age when I was meeting fans I was excited to meet
them but at the same time I
knew what they were capable of so I had this weird like battle in my head every
time I'd meet someone
my age of like I'm so appreciative of you but I'm also terrified of what you're
capable of wow so you
just had a wall up for any young kids that reminded you of the girls who
bullied you which was my fan
base at that time and so that was always in my mind and and I actually never
even told anybody that
really because I didn't think it was important I also felt guilty for feeling
that way towards my fans
did you discuss the bullying with anybody at the time oh yeah I did I discussed
it with my mom she
took it we went I mean she came to the school and tried to tell them what was
happening and they
were like if it's cyber bullying we can't do anything about it it doesn't
happen on school grounds so no
punishment really took place and I mean they had a suicide petition that they
passed around the school
and tried to get people to sign it so that I would kill my like it's it gets gnarly
and and girls can be
mean yeah middle school girls could be mean and so I talked about it a lot and
then I decided that was
really my first taste of activism work was being an advocate for anti-bullying
and I remember I like
decided to start talking about it and I felt like I felt some purpose and all
of a sudden my career
wasn't about my talent anymore have you ever run into those girls so I haven't
run into them but I did
make a phone call to like the main girl that bullied me because when I got
sober a part of the program
they teach you to on your ninth step as you make amends and when you do your
resentments or you you
make a list of resentments you write down everyone you've had a resentment
against your entire life
at least this is the way I was brought through the steps and her name was on it
and when they had me go
through what was my part and I was like well I put the name down that she was a
bitch so like I guess
I did play a part in that and when I looked at everything I was like you know I
can't look back
at that situation and and say that I was innocent so I went to own my part but
a part of the step was
calling and making amends and so I called her and she was like oh my gosh I can't
even believe you
remember who I am and I was like bitch you ruined my life like what are you
fucking kidding me
and I was so like I just like sat there and I was like cool I think this
concludes the end of this
phone call I'm sorry and who wish you well what was she did you get past that
did you talk to her
like she was so thrown off that I even remembered who she was after becoming
famous and a celebrity
that like she wasn't interested in talking about what had happened when I was
12 or when we were 12
what did she want to talk about like what's it like to be you like how are you
like oh my god I miss you
so much I hope you're well and I was just like god grant me the serenity to
accept the things I cannot
change isn't it it's so strange people that are not famous for some reason they
think that people
who are famous are not people yeah you become a famous person you're not a
person it's like you
have like a shield around you you you like all your emotional scars or all of
your past right
you know still for some reason that doesn't it doesn't affect you you're in a
castle somewhere
covered in gold right yeah yeah they think that like that's probably how she
felt when she was
talking to you like how do you remember me like you're in a castle covered in
gold and so I'm hearing
this thinking like I've I just got out of treatment for an eating disorder like
you don't think I
remember you you were the first person to ever call me or not the first but
like you were the first
mean girl to call me fat like of course I remember you it was just wild but you
know you look back at
times like that and everybody like those were my teachers at that time like we
all have teachers
yeah and and people and so even though I I used to resent that person for many
years I look at that
time in my life and I'm like well I needed to learn those lessons then and um
it is what it is can't
change the past it's a painful lesson yeah that hangs with you for that long
but did you feel a large
weight lifted off you after having that conversation with her uh no no felt the
same way no it actually
it made me more upset because I was like how does someone who literally altered
the course of my
life not that I'm blaming her for my eating disorder I would have probably
developed one anyways because
my mother had one and so I was I was looking at negative food behaviors and
that's all I knew and
so when someone called me fat I knew exactly what to do now like I said I don't
blame her for it but um I
couldn't believe that she didn't think I remembered who she was after what she
said made me uh decide to
stop eating
yeah I just what I what I said earlier I just don't think that someone like her
ever thinks that someone
like you even has normal feelings yeah totally and a lot of people still think
that about celebrities like
yeah catch new episodes of the joe rogan experience for free only on spotify
watch back catalog jre videos
on spotify including clips easily seamlessly switch between video and audio
experience on spotify you
can listen to the jre in the background while using other apps and can download
episodes to save on data
cost all for free spotify is absolutely free you don't have to have a premium
account to watch new
jre episodes you just need to search for the jre on your spotify app go to spotify
now to get this full
episode of the Joe Rogan Experience.