All About Confidence - Episode 11

As we continue to talk about the reality of bullying this week, we wanted to focus on the impact it can have on a student’s self-confidence. We interviewed students to learn more about what confidence means to them and how to build up confidence in yourself and others.

Transcript

Hey, welcome to PacerTalks about bullying. I'm Bailey. We're glad you're here.

So often when students experience bullying, they lose self-esteem and self-confidence. And this week's video we asked teens what does confidence mean to you? How can you inspire confidence in others? And how do you inspire yourself to be more confident? They had some amazing responses and I think you're really going to enjoy all that they had to say. Let's roll into it.

What does confidence mean to you?

Confidence in me means being comfortable in your own skin.

So confidence is all about knowing your self-worth and believing in yourself.

Confidence to me would be, like, where you can go through school or wherever you go with friends or family and you feel okay about yourself. That you can -- that nothing is wrong about yourself. That you're able to everyday lives around school, and go home and say that you felt great that day and not like, "Oh, this felt wrong about me" by influencing, you know, by social media.

And it makes me feel so good having confidence. It really boosts every -- it ,, like, boosts your day knowing that you got this. And, you can go throughout the day with a smile on your face and be stronger.

To me it's just something important that everyone should have, and that does have, as long as they know how they feel about themselves in the end.

It makes inspire happiness and feel good.

I think being confident is easy enough to just a smile and put on a good show for others.

What are ways that others make you feel confident?

When I had to leave high school at the beginning of my junior year, my entire swim team got together and wrote me notes telling me that I am strong, beautiful and that I'll make it through. That made me feel very confident in myself.

Everyday my mom provides - helps me feel confident in myself by telling me that I'm beautiful.

One little thing you could do is make sticky notes and write things like You're Pretty, You're Beautiful, You're Strong, You Can Do It and stick them places around your school or on your mirror so you see it every morning. And so other people can see it.

What are ways that you inspire confidence in yourself?

So one skill or trait that gives me confidence is humor. Because when I make other people laugh it makes me laugh and whenever they laugh it cheers my day up.

Some of the ways that I inspire confidence in myself is by taking care of myself. And I know that's something you can forget. But taking care of ourselves is so important and when we take care of ourselves and love ourselves and realize that we are worthy of love, happiness, and respect, we can therefore affect positive change in our communities.

Well, I think, one way to be confident, is to find something you love and dedicate your time and effort into it. And once you do that, you can inspire others through what you love and that's how you can be confident.

It really helps me feel, when I'm confident, like I own the world. And like I know what I'm doing when I walk in a room and I don't have to hide or feel shy. It's just me and utterly me and that's okay.

And thanks so much again to all of the amazing students who shared their answer about confidence with us. Remember, so often bullying breaks students down, but you have the power to build them back up and make them feel more confident. Join us right back here next week for another episode of PacerTalks about bullying. And remember, when we stand together no one stands alone. See you.