Yesterday my friend Reed showed me this page on Facebook. It is a page that mocked people with food allergies saying that food allergies were fake. They posted pictures of people getting allergy tested saying it was herpes, posts saying allergic people should stab Epipens in their brain, posts saying that food allergic people were making up allergies for attention and that we were all liars. After seeing the page I was outraged and I reported it.
Shortly after the report to Facebook, I received the following notification:
Outraged that Facebook failed to remove a page that promoted cyber bullying, I texted Reed and we decided we were going to make sure the page came down. As teenagers living in a technology filled world, we decided to do what seemed natural so we started a petition on change.org.
Then, Reed and I went to the source of the problem--Facebook. We shared it on every food allergy group we could find, along with our own timelines. And within minutes we had an amazing response. My friends as well as Reed's friends started posting it to their timelines and sharing it with their friends. Within an hour we had over 250 supporters, people from all over the globe and 6 hours later, we had 1,814 supporters. Reed and I were both humbled and amazed.
Around 11:30pm EST (6 hours later), the page was gone and we were able to declare victory. Pressing the victory button was one of the best feelings!
The thing is though, the lessons from this page run deeper than just a victory button. I have learned that food allergy bullying isn't just limited to the school bus or a sports team--it can be found anywhere. The more important lesson though is that the food allergy community is extremely strong. Every single one of the 1,814 signatures represented a different experience with food allergies and every single one of the 1,814 signatures made a difference.
If in 6 hours our petition could reach that many people, just imagine the impact we can have in a lifetime. You are never too young or too old to make a difference! Don't be afraid to use your voice and stand up for what is right because nothing will change if you don't!
If you are a victim of bullying and need people who "get it" there are lots of food allergy support groups on Facebook filled with people from the food allergy community who understand. We also know that bullying can be life threatening just like food allergies. If you or someone you know is being bullied and needs help please visit this page to find some helpful resources! To view the petition, click here.
If in 6 hours our petition could reach that many people, just imagine the impact we can have in a lifetime. You are never too young or too old to make a difference! Don't be afraid to use your voice and stand up for what is right because nothing will change if you don't!
If you are a victim of bullying and need people who "get it" there are lots of food allergy support groups on Facebook filled with people from the food allergy community who understand. We also know that bullying can be life threatening just like food allergies. If you or someone you know is being bullied and needs help please visit this page to find some helpful resources! To view the petition, click here.
Update: 2/20/15
Unfortunately, as many of us were sad to learn, the "Your Allergies are Bulls#$t" page went back up Wednesday (2/18/15) around noon. Luckily though it was back down again around midnight. Within the last few days we have learned from multiple anonymous sources that the page was made by a group to teenage girls who had made it to directly target a few girls from their school. They probably never intended that the petition would gain so many signatures or that people from the food allergy community would have stood up the way they did. While the petition closed with over 2,500 signatures, many adults in the food allergy community felt as though it was a waste of time and they didn't feel like it was worth the energy to take down a page with only 200 likes. Reed and I felt that targeting one person was one too many which is why we felt that the risk of bringing them more attention was worth it to not only the girls being targeted by name that they have a whole community standing behind them but to teach the admins that bullying is never ok. Once again, thanks for the support! We hope the page is gone for good!