suffers from neurofibromatosis, a condition the
17-year-old was diagnosed with at 8 months,
and the tumor it caused to grow on just one
side of her face elicited cries of ‘fat face’ and
‘slut’ from ruthless schoolmates for years.
Last year, Atwell fought back. She posted a video to
Facebook in which she made her intentions to live a
happy life clear no matter what the bullies called
her.
Fighting back
Atwell posted a video where she battles back
against the people who’ve made her feel terrible as
she struggled with a lifetime of disfigurement
caused by the rare disease neurofibromatosis.
In 2012, she decided to say something. Using
notecards, she wrote out everything her life with
neurofibromatosis, and the bullies who came with
it, made her feel.
‘I have a tumor, that’s all,’ says a card the teen
holds for the world to see.
‘I wish people could understand there is nothing
wrong with me,’ says another.
But people weren’t trying to understand, something
the video makes heartbreakingly clear.
‘I get called names all the time,’ reads a card.
‘Bitch, slut, fat face, fat, ugly…it hurts.’
‘Maybe one day the bullying will stop, but until
then I’m going to be STRONG,’ one of the last cards
says.
Satisfied, Sarah posted her video to Facebook and
went to bed.
‘The next day I got up and my inbox was over 1000
messages or more from people,’ Sarah said. ‘It felt
pretty good.’
Among what was likely the millions who saw her
video was someone from Discovery and the
channel has documented a very exciting, and scary,
part of the young girl’s life.
Not only is she at the brink of a new chapter as a
senior in high school, the special also shows
her preparing to undergo a surgery she hopes
will be her last.
The footage is from last year. Today, she’s a new
woman.
‘It’s pretty awesome. I am pretty sure most of it is
gone except a little bit around the eyes,’ she told
ABC. ‘The doctor said he could not be sure if it
would come back or not.’
Sarah says she hopes to find a career where she can
work with kids. And she’d give them all the wisdom
she wish she’d been given.
‘If I could stand up to bullying, and if another kid
who was bullied sees me and thinks they can talk to
someone and think, ‘I can stand up for myself,’
then I have helped,’ she said.
