Walbert Castillo

USA TODAY COLLEGE

The hashtag known as #IAmAMisfit is gaining traction on social after pop duo High Dive Heart teamed up with trans teen Corey Maison to help raise awareness on the severe impact of bullying.

The teen, who remains silent, holds up note cards to tell her story about not fitting in with the other kids. Maison writes: “I might look happy now, I haven’t always been. I’ve known I was different all my life.”

The bullying she received from boys her age was so bad, she writes, that she was reduced to tears daily. She was even told to kill herself and that no one would miss her.

Her extraordinarily supportive parents decided to home school her.

“To all the kids out there, bullying is never ok. I want to tell anyone being bullied this is temporary and it will get better,” she writes. “Know that even though it may not feel like it now, you are incredible, you are beautiful, you are worth so much and you are loved.”

Walbert Castillo is a recent University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign graduate and a USA TODAY College intern.