Wil Wheaton’s Response To A Little Girl: How To Deal With Being Bullied

UPDATE: Wil Wheaton posted on his blog, “Regarding confidence, compassion, and bullies” discussing the above video and the girl who asked the question.

Wil Wheaton gave a poignant speech about bullying at last year’s Denver Comic Con. The star had been taking questions from the audience when a little girl asked him how to deal with bullying.

Wheaton talked about how he was bullied as a kid for liking subjects like math instead of sports. He then said, “I wish I could tell you that there’s a really easy way to just not care. But the truth is, it hurts.”

Wheaton’s speech ended on a high note. “It absolutely gets better as you get older,” he promised. Then he added that there were 50,000 people at the comic convention that weekend, as a testament that ‘nerds’ can do pretty well for themselves.

Wil Wheaton gave another moving speech at Calgary Comic Con: “Why Its Awesome To Be A Nerd.”

Although both videos are from last year, the bullying speech is making the rounds on facebook in response to recent concerns about bullying. Earlier this year, Grayson Bruce was bullied over his love of My Little Pony was told to leave his MLP lunch bag at home (the school has since apologized) and another Brony attempted suicide. The Support For Grayson facebook page found Wil Wheaton’s talk moving and has shared it with its 75,000 followers.

Wil Wheaton is known for being outspoken about bullying. Last October he posted a lengthy account of his and his son’s experiences with bullying, in a post titled, “I haven’t thought about the kid who bullied me in over twenty years.”

When his own son was bullied, Wil and his wife “tried and tried and tried to get someone at the school to do something — to do anything — to help our son, and how the school just made excuses until our son was seriously injured.”

His post is a plea that bullying be taken seriously because “All people deserve to be happy, and all children deserve to grow up in an environment where they feel safe and free.”

Wil Weaton frequently attends conventions and other events. So far, he’s announced that he expects to be at University Park, PA in June, San Diego Comic Con in July and Rose City Comic Con in September.

Wil Wheaton posts on his blog about his travels and his work on The Big Bang Theory set. He also maintains a twitter and a facebook — in fact, you can find him on pretty much every social network.