Stop the Hate: Elizabeth Marvelly's message on bullying

Elizabeth Marvelly is a Rotorua singing sensation who has toured the world sharing her craft. The soprano can boast many accomplishments in her career including her own national tours, performing alongside stars such as Dame Malvina Major, Sir Howard Morrison and Britain's Got Talent star Paul Potts. She is currently working on her third album. Marvelly shares her own experience of being bullied.

Bullying is not okay. It is deeply hurtful and as we have seen recently with the recent youth suicides, it can even be deadly.

It breaks my heart that these teenagers felt so terrible about themselves that they saw no other option but to end their lives.

Bullying is everyone's issue and we need to face up to it as a community. We need to protect our youth, our friends, and our families, as unfortunately, bullying doesn't necessarily stop when we walk out the school gate.

We also need to help the bullies. They're often in just as much pain as their victims.

Often they make other people feel miserable because they are intensely miserable themselves.

I was bullied mercilessly one year at primary school. My bully made my life a living hell for about six months. As it turned out, her mother had just been diagnosed with leukaemia and she had no outlet for her pain other than to inflict pain on others. It didn't make her behaviour okay, but she really needed help.

Whether it's cyberbullying, text-bullying or plain old schoolyard bullying, it has to stop.

I don't have the answers to solve the problem but it seems to me that a little love goes a long way. We need more love and less hate, because at the end of the day, we're all in this together.