Laguna Students Learn to Stand Beautiful

This week at Laguna, Upper School students got to hear from TEDx speaker Chloe Howard, a 16-year-old from Northern California who was bullied as a freshman because of her club foot. She now uses that experience to empower people of all ages to embrace their uniqueness.

Here is Chloe's story in her own words
In late 2014, I was assaulted during my freshman year because of my clubfoot, and as a result spent many many months hating my foot, blaming myself, feeling alone, and becoming progressively more depressed. However, that summer (summer 2015), I had the miraculous opportunity to meet Bono of U2 (which just happens to be my favorite band) and told him about everything I'd gone through. After hearing my story, Bono told me that my voice was powerful, and that when I spoke, I spoke for everyone that couldn't.

Bono's words completely turned me around and I realized that I wanted to speak out about what happened to me, so I started my campaign, Stand Beautiful. Through Stand Beautiful, I want to challenge people to change their perspective on their differences and see their society-deemed imperfections as beautiful rather than ugly and something to be ashamed of.

In the past 22 months since my assault, some major things have happened. Along with meeting Bono, starting my campaign, going to my first school dance, and getting my driver's license, I journeyed through a fantastically long and painful process known as the legal justice system. The perpetrators of my assault were tried with a felony hate-crime, but after more than a year in court and then trial, they were found guilty of misdemeanor battery. It's been a crazy process, but as of three days ago, it's all over.

Another big thing happened as well. In August, I gave a TEDx talk about the epidemic of bullying, self acceptance, and my own transformational story. It was a pretty amazing experience for me and one that I am really proud of.

I emerged from my experience realizing that I LOVE telling my story and seeing the impact it has on people. I would be so grateful if you would introduce my story to a few people in your network that you feel would also identify with my ‘STAND Beautiful’ message.

Please share my story with your family, friends, and especially those who you think would help benefit from and re-tell this story. My desire is to share hope and peace for those who feel less-than perfect.

Click to view Chloe's TED talk.

Visit Chloe's website to watch her mini-documentary or check out her inspirational products.
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