Ask the Author: Jess Kitching
Answered Questions (1)
Jess Kitching
I have a strawberry shaped birthmark on my forehead, and in the past, I’ve done advocacy work around facial differences. This story came to me when I was being interviewed by the organisation More Than A Face. I was asked about my experience of life with a facial difference, so I detailed some of the things that had happened to me. When I finished, the interviewer said, ‘I’m really sorry you were bullied’.
I was never someone who saw myself as bullied, but when I thought back to some of my experiences, I realised how much they impacted me. Even as an adult, the negative voice in my head wasn’t mine, but the voice of others. The way I described myself wasn’t in my own words, but in the words other people had used to describe me. Ugly, hideous, unlovable – all the things I said to myself when I was feeling down, none of them were words I’d thought to call myself before someone else did.
It made me think – if I didn’t class myself as bullied but have been so affected by that treatment, what about someone who was bullied? How would they feel? What would they think of themself?
The rest, as they say, is history.
I was never someone who saw myself as bullied, but when I thought back to some of my experiences, I realised how much they impacted me. Even as an adult, the negative voice in my head wasn’t mine, but the voice of others. The way I described myself wasn’t in my own words, but in the words other people had used to describe me. Ugly, hideous, unlovable – all the things I said to myself when I was feeling down, none of them were words I’d thought to call myself before someone else did.
It made me think – if I didn’t class myself as bullied but have been so affected by that treatment, what about someone who was bullied? How would they feel? What would they think of themself?
The rest, as they say, is history.
About Goodreads Q&A
Ask and answer questions about books!
You can pose questions to the Goodreads community with Reader Q&A, or ask your favorite author a question with Ask the Author.
See Featured Authors Answering Questions
Learn more