Shawn Mendes, Lady Gaga & More Stars Who've Open Up About the Bullying They Faced as KidsJuly 2, 2019Celebs share their painful experiences – and what they learned from them
![The pop star, who underwent gender-confirmation surgery when she was 16, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ecL0xG5-AdU">talked to <em>Glamour U.K.</em></a> about how bullies affected her young years. "Just being transgender and going to school is tough. [I learned] people will not like you or people will like you, that's just a reality of life," she said. "You cannot please everybody, and a lot of people bully people because they're jealous or because they have their own personal issue that they project on you. Sometimes it doesn't even have to do with you, sometimes people are just bored."
<a href="https://people.com/music/kim-petras-rise-to-pop-stardom/">Petras later told PEOPLE</a> that she relied on music to be a respite during her most troubling times. "[Pop music] means everything to me. When I was a kid, I used to not really have friends in school. I hated going to school — I got bullied pretty bad," she said. "I used to run home from school and watch Gwen Stefani music videos, and I felt like I could escape my problems with that."](https://s.yimg.com/ny/api/res/1.2/ee5KxcausQ7pnf5_OhyiAg--~A/YXBwaWQ9aGlnaGxhbmRlcjtzbT0xO3c9MTI4MDtoPTk2MA--/https://media.zenfs.com/en/people_218/faa680370c13298053026e1135b13dd2)
![During his adolescence, the <em>Frozen 2</em> star found a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uu9h9swFslA">unique way to handle his haters</a>. "I realized early on [that] I was the absolute poster boy for bullying because I struggled with being overweight from a very early age, but I also discovered that comedy was a weapon that I was able to employ," he said on <em>Off Camera with Sam Jones</em>. "I remember one time a kid calling me fat in front of, like, a group of people. And, instead of kowtowing and giving him the opportunity to sort of, you know, leave, I started recited that monologue from <em>My Cousin Vinny</em>, where he walks in the bar and he sees the guy in the arm sling. And I just literally started reciting to the point that the guy's like, 'What the f--- is happening right now?' And everybody is laughing at him."
Now a dad of two, Gad is passing on all the lessons he's learned about what motivated detractors and how they should be dealt with. "There have been instances where I've watched my own kid get bullied, and it's painful, it's really painful," he said. "It's an honest conversation that you have to have, especially if you're a father or a mother, where you sit down and you let them know that it's on the other person. Which isn't just words — it really is the truth. If someone feels the need to come up to you and call you weird, or call you whatever name, it's because they don't like themselves."](https://s.yimg.com/ny/api/res/1.2/2g3IeV6ZdW3whyjwOt5XtA--~A/YXBwaWQ9aGlnaGxhbmRlcjtzbT0xO3c9MTI4MDtoPTk2MA--/https://media.zenfs.com/en/people_218/b65234c6e387857dd050be7615874bf4)
