There are few people on planet Earth that know what it feels like to be bullied quite like Monica Lewinsky.
In her early 20s, she became the focus of one of the biggest scandals in American history after engaging in a sexual relationship with former president Bill Clinton.
She was the butt of nighttime talk show jokes, harassed by politicians, and constantly pursued by the paparazzi. Twenty years later, she’s survived the scandal and become a tireless advocate for helping those who’ve been bullied.
Given her experience with harassment, she saw it as time to “stick my head above the parapet so that I can take back my narrative and give a purpose to my past.”
Being that the Clinton-Lewinsky scandal was at the onset of the internet-era she considered herself, “patient zero” of online harassment.
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A 2018 report by Pew Research Center found that 59% of U.S. teens have been bullied or harassed online. “The bullying crisis has become a global epidemic,” Lewinsky said on the TODAY show.
“It can be hard to see the signs of when someone’s going through this and then, even worse than all of that is the fact that this behavior, with cyber-bullying, even though it takes place online, there are offline consequences, and these consequences can range from bad to grave,” Lewisnky continued.
To help spread awareness about the hidden evils of cyberbullying, she’s partnered with The Epidemic to create a new interactive PSA that gives viewers an inside look at how this modern form harassment feels.
The campaign begins with an online video about a mystery illness affecting a teenager named Haley. “You see and feel firsthand how awful and devastating these messages can be,” Lewinsky said.
Eventually, this illness leads her to overdose on pills.
At the end of the video, viewer are invited to share their phone numbers and are sent a link to the video. But this time it’s accompanied by a barrage of text messages that give one a first-hand experience of how relentless and debilitating cyberbullying can be.
Cyberbullying is often mischaracterized as less harmful than face-to-face bullying. But it can be relentless and just as damaging psychologically. Cyberbullying can happen at any time, day or night and is impossible to escape.
This video is a powerful wake-up call to parents and teachers to show them just how painful and relentless this form of harassment can be.
To get help for cyberbullying, visit the Crisis text Line.
