Celebrities who were bullied

1.Kim Petras:

The pop star, who underwent gender-confirmation surgery when she was 16, talked to Glamour U.K. 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 issues that they project on you. Sometimes it doesn't even have to do with you, sometimes people are just bored."

Petras later told PEOPLE 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."

2.Josh Gad :

During his adolescence, the Frozen 2 star found a unique way to handle his haters. "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 Off Camera with Sam Jones. "I remember one time a kid calling me fat in front of, like, a group of people. And, instead of giving him the opportunity to sort of, you know, leave, I started recited that monologue from My Cousin Vinny, 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."

3.Shawn Mendes:

In a June 2019 Instagram post, the singer opened up about teasing he experienced after posting one of his earlier videos to YouTube. At the time, he was in 9th grade and a group of older bullies at school had gotten word, teasing him about it the next day.

"[They were] yelling out 'sing for me Shawn sing for me!' in a way that made me feel absolutely horrible… made me feel like a joke, like what I was doing was just stupid and wrong," Mendes recalled.

"It's not a joke to me," he said. "To make someone feel bad about doing what they love… every single person deserves to do what makes them feel alive."

"I'm writing this not only to the 15-year-old kid who's scared to follow their heart because of what people might say, but also to the 50-year-old who may be doing the exact same thing," Mendes explained.

4.Niall Horan:

Horan didn't go into detail of his own experiences, but commented on Mendes' June 2019 post alluding to bullying in his past, too.

"Couldn't relate or agree with something more If I tried…" Horan wrote. "We had the last laugh."

5.Priyanka Chopra Jonas:

In an interview with Glamour, the actress revealed she was bullied in high school — a traumatic experience that prompted her move back to India from the U.S.

"There was this girl who was a major bully. I think she didn't like me because her boyfriend liked me, or some high school dynamic," Chopra shared. "She made my life hell. She used to call me names and would push me against the locker."

"Maybe I, being on the platform that I am, can say this louder than the kid who has to get on the subway and go to school: You don't need to be afraid of who you are," she said. "I don't want any kid to feel the way I felt in school. I was afraid of my bully. It made me feel like I'm less — in my skin, in my identity, in my culture."

In May 2019, she opened up again about her experiences in American high schools, telling the Associated Press, "I was treated differently because I'm brown. I had, you know, really racist behavior when I was in high school in 10th grade. I was called 'Brownie,' 'Curry,' [told to] 'go back on the elephant you came on,' and that really affected me when I was a kid and affected my self-esteem."

6.Lady Gaga;

Gaga told PEOPLE that her memories of being bullied helped her connect with her insecure A Star Is Born character, Ally.

"Well, what's different between Ally and [myself] is that when I decided I was going to go for it as a singer and songwriter, I just hit the ground running," she said. "I really believed in myself. Ally is not this way. My character in this film, she doesn't believe in herself at all. She's very jaded by the music industry and she's given up on herself."

"What I had to do was go back further into my childhood, into my high school years, when I was bullied and made fun of for having big dreams," she continued. "That's where I went."

7.Janel Parrish;

The Pretty Little Liars alum opened up about her younger years as a student as part of an anti-bullying PSA for Disney/ABC's #ChooseKindness campaign with her Perfectionists costar Sasha Pieterse for National Bullying Prevention Month.

"I have had experiences being bullied. For me, it was definitely high school. I was not the popular girl at all," Parrish said in a PEOPLE exclusive video. "Being a very theatrical girl who always wanted to do musical theatre after school instead of hang out with the cool kids and go to the mall. And that made me different so I definitely got made fun of a lot, called names."

"Being called names, having people make you feel like you are less than in any way is so demeaning and it just makes you feel so self-conscious all the time," the To All The Boys I've Loved Before star recalled.

"But ultimately, end of the day, I think what made me different is what makes me special. I embraced it and I'm really glad that I did," she said.

8.Blake Lively:

The long-legged blonde beauty revealed during an appearance on Sesame Street that she was bullied for exactly those features growing up. "Kids used to make fun of me in elementary school by calling me Big Bird (because I was 'too tall' and had 'yellow' hair). Here's to making best buddies with the things that once hurt you," she captioned an Instagram post of her posing beside the real Big Bird.

9.Bella Hadid:

The model typically ignores social media haters, but some comments are too unfair and painful to let slide. "At the end of the day I don't want to mean, and I don't want to 'clap back.' We're all just human beings and it wasn't even about what they said about our faces, it was just that — don't attack my personality because you don't know me. That's what deeply hurts me," she said of her reaction.

Her response was sparked when someone commented on a fan account's split photo of Hadid and close friend Kendall Jenner, accusing them of getting plastic surgery and writing, "money can get you a new face but not a nicer personality which these two girls need."

"I wish you would know either of our personalities. And not only that, I wish you would only grasp a heart of your own," she wrote. "Blessings to you sweetheart. Jealousy is a cry for help that I wish I could help you with."

Hadid still posts things that matter to her, but has decided to keep some things more private. "I learned that protecting myself and my heart is more important to me right now."

10.Madison Beer;

Beer, a singer who made a name for herself with her YouTube videos, said that she experiences cyberbullying on a daily basis. "I wake up and have been told to kill myself like 30 times already; it's crazy!" she told Elvis Duran on the Z100 Morning Show. "It's definitely what comes with it, and a lot of people say, 'Yeah, but this is what you signed up for.' " Beer, however, disagrees with that assessment: "I think that's such a shame to say. It shouldn't come along with me making music and following my dreams. It's upsetting those two go hand-in-hand now because of social media."