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(KMSP) - If you’ve been in or around a school in recent weeks, you may have noticed a campaign to prevent bullying.
October has been Bullying Prevention Month nationally since 2006 and schools have worked to raise awareness with their students.
A Minneapolis teenager took that cause one step further and published her first book on the topic at the young age of 13. It’s a book called “Brianna’s Voice.”
Timiya Reese says the halls of school can be an overwhelming place. As a middle schooler, she remembers girls being assessed and judged by their size and appearance.
When asked about the hardest part of being a teenage girl, she says "body shape."
“If you don’t have that exact body shape that everyone wants you to have, you are not it,” she said. “I got bullied about my weight and how skinny I was and how I didn’t have that upper body like other girls."
Brianna was already nearing 5’6” as an 8th grader and towered over many of the other kids.
As part of a writing assignment, she developed the story of a young girl named Brianna whose parents died in an accident. Brianna moves in with her grandmother and faces quite a bit of anxiety with the loss of her parents. She notices the bullies and the kids getting bullies and works up the courage to stand up to them. Also, despite her shy personality, she runs for Student Body President.
“She tried to help others and once she helped others she learned from how she helped them so she used that on herself,” says Timiya.
Timiya and her mother worked to get the book published so it could be shared with others and Timiya has even spoken to a few school assemblies.
Now a freshman in high school, she hopes “Brianna’s Voice” can be a voice for others.
For more information on the book, click here: https://www.briannasvoice.com/