Do You Know Who I Am?

Posted: 10/15/2013

My name is Amaranthia Gittens-Jones. I was bullied since the day I moved back to America from Tokyo, Japan at age 7. I am now 14. I dealt with stress from bullying at school for this entire time period and became very sick because of it. In order to cope I used my artistic ability and created many original pieces of art. This year in 7th grade, I decided not to accept bullying in my life anymore. However, I was bullied throughout the year. It was a fight to continue getting good grades and to stay in school. My stress level was very high and I was traumatized and tested positive for an autoimmune disorder months later. In the last few months my life truly changed. Through it all, I continued to produce more art. I am no longer in Public School and am now home schooled. My Mom created a webpage telling my story and she has used it to help me recover and heal. I have donated my artwork to help other people. I’m doing 4-5 solo art shows with 20-25 art pieces in them including at the New Hampshire Technical Institute’s gallery, Concord, New Hampshire in January 2014. My goal was to have a solo art show at some point in my teenage life but now I have more than I expected. I am going to continue to help others by donating my art or money from my art sales. Bullying prevention is important to me because I became very sick from it. “Do You Know Who I Am?” is a project i created to heal as well as to share my story and raise awareness. I want to help other kids who are having problems or who are sick because of bullying. Kids can download my project as a PDF template from my website and use their talents to share their stories to fight back against bullying. I hope my story will inspire them. See my Youtube Anti-Bullying message and my website information here: http://youtu.be/hYRm1Mrbj-w

This photo shows the characters “Giro and Kazune” from my Comic/Manga work in progress “Kuboro.” Part of the story deals with bullying in a school in the year 2025. Giro helps Kazune, who is very shy, to come out of her shell. See KuboroDKode website here: http://kuboro.wordpress.com

By: Amaranthia Gittens-Jones