Demi Lovato’s Sister Was Cyber-Bullied On Twitter – What Was She Doing There At 6 Years Of Age?
Demi Lovato’s sister Madison De La Garza was cyber-bullied when she was just six years old. The, then little girl of six, had taken to twitter to connect with fans of Desperate Housewives, but ended up being the victim of “unkind” words that made her feel “hurt and insecure.”
Madison De La Garza followed her elder sister Demi Lovato’s footsteps into a world of stardom at a very early age, when she bagged the role of Eva Longoria’s adorable daughter Juanita Solis in the super-hit sitcom Desperate Housewives way back in 2008. Moreover, observing how her elder half-sister Lovato had a powerful effect on people through social media platform Twitter, La Garza decided she too would join the micro-blogging platform to impart a positive influence:
“I had watched how easy it was for my older sister, Demi Lovato, to make someone’s day with just a simple tweet, and I’d thought, ‘Maybe I can do that too!’ It didn’t quite work out that way.”
She strongly wished to connect with the fans of the show she starred in, and hopefully have some meaningful connection with some who admired her work. However, the social media jungle wasn’t as kind and receptive as La Garza had hoped, reported Hollywood. Sharing her traumatic experience she had to endure at the hands of complete strangers on Twitter, she said in an essay she wrote for a Latin magazine:
“There will never be an acceptable excuse for the cruelty that takes place on the Internet. Imagine being called ‘fat,’ ‘ugly,’ or even ‘s***’ by someone you’ve never even met. Now imagine reading those words at only six years old.”
Explaining the impact such offensive language had on her, and how Lovato helped her, La Garza continued,
“Once you start questioning the reality of vicious words, it’s hard to stop. No matter how strong you are, repetition inevitably takes its toll on you. At an extremely young age, I started to think maybe the cruel voices were right… Like Demi told me, ‘At the end of the day, what others say about you doesn’t matter. What matters is how you cope with it and how you come out on the other side.’ You are the only person who has to love you. After all, you only get one body – other people’s opinions shouldn’t interfere with the love you have for it.”
While it is absolutely wrong to target someone with hurtful words, being on social media platforms, one has to understand that it might get ugly too. To have a basic understanding about the perils, social media platforms mandate a minimum age of at least 13. While it might be easy to circumvent these rules, did Demi Lovato’s sister set herself up for being a soft and vulnerable target when she signed on when she wasn’t even half the legal permissible age?
For anyone telling me to "chill".. The impact bullies have over the internet can lead people to suicide. I … http://t.co/SbLRdbdQED
— Demi Lovato (@ddlovato) September 1, 2014
Though Demi Lovato, who recently lost her dog, certainly responded harshly to the bullies who attempted to harass her little sister, perhaps she could user her stardom to make a lot of people understand the plight of the victims and educate them about the possible dangers that await them in the cyber-world.
[Image Credit | Valerie Macon / Getty Images]
