Need help straight away?
You can talk privately to a counsellor online or call 0800 1111 for free.
Hi there,
Friendships are an important part of life for many people. Friends can be there to support and enjoy life with each other. It isnt okay for a friend to bully you and its not your fault that its happening. You deserve to have friendships that make you feel respected and cared about. Its wrong for your friend to call you names and try and make you feel bad about yourself.
You said your friend doesnt seem to care if she hurts you and she sounds as though shes making you very angry and unhappy. It could help to try and let your friend know how shes making you feel, because theres a chance that she doesnt realise. If you decide to try this, its a good idea to plan what youd like to say. You might find it useful to check out our tips about being assertive to help you get your point of view across to her.
If you decide that talking to her doesnt feel right, it might help to tell an adult at school about your friends behaviour. Staff at all schools have a responsibility to help keep all young people safe from bullying. Think about which teacher or member of staff you can trust and write down everything youd like them to know about your friends behaviour.
Bullying can affect your confidence so if the things shes been saying have affected how you feel about yourself, how about finding out more on building your confidence and self-esteem? We have some useful tips to help you work on feeling better about yourself.
If youd like to talk this through some more, please remember that you can always speak to a ChildLine counsellor. They can be there to listen and help you think about what youd like to do.
Thanks so much for taking the time to write this letter to me. I can hear that youre having a very upsetting time and I really hope you get the support you need.
Take care,
Sam
You can talk privately to a counsellor online or call 0800 1111 for free.
You can ask me about anything you want, there's nothing too big or small. I read every single letter but I can only answer a few each week. My replies are published here on my page.