Brazil teacher changes hairstyle to support bullied girl Published duration 25 March 2017

image copyright Facebook image caption Ms Ferreira said the girl was sad after being told her hair was ugly

A Brazilian teacher has come up with a unique way to help a schoolgirl who was being bullied because of her hair.

Ana Barbara Ferreira, from Sao Paulo, said her student was "sad" after being ridiculed by a boy, who had said her hair was "ugly".

"At that moment, the only thing I could tell her was that she was wonderful and shouldn't care about what he was saying," she wrote in a Facebook post that went viral.

A bigger show of support came in the following day, when she went to work wearing the same hairstyle as her pupil, much to the girl's surprise.

"When she saw me, she came running to hug me and say that I was beautiful," Ms Ferreira said.

"I told her: 'Today I'm beautiful like you!'"

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She posted a picture on Facebook of her with the pupil - both smiling and with similar hairstyles.

The teacher has been widely praised on social media. Her post has been liked by more than 142,000 people and shared 30,000 times.

image copyright FACEBOOK

Ms Ferreira said: "Yesterday, my student told me there was a boy saying that her hair was ugly. She was very sad. At that moment, the only thing I could tell her was that she was wonderful and shouldn't care about what he was saying.

"Today, I woke up and remembered what happened and decided to wear the same hairstyle she used to wear. When she saw me, she came running to hug me and say that I was beautiful, and I told her: 'Today I'm beautiful like you!'."