It doesn’t matter if you’re a celebrity. If you’ve ever been bullied, the sting sticks with you.

“I felt so alone in this world,” Queer Eye's Tan France said.

High School graduate Darryl Mattewakang knows the feeling, having experienced bullying much of his life. It started as micro-aggressions in middle school, which he hoped would go away once he started attending the brand new Rise Kohyang High School. While standing outside campus, Mattewakang recalls multiple incidents.

“Throughout my life, I had multiple accounts of micro-aggressions. For example being called chinky-eyes or you know, eating with chopsticks,” Mattewakang said. “When this school opened, I found myself really excited to become part of the founding class, but even as the founding class, the classroom can be very hectic at times.”
 
Most might expect bullying to happen from someone you don’t know, but in Mattewakang's case, it came from his friends.
 
“It got out of hand when one day one of my friends sprayed Lysol spray into my ear because I’m Asian and they thought that because I’m Asian, I would have the virus myself,” Mattewakang said. “It really affected me because I’m just like any other person. I’m just a human being.”

That’s when Mattewakang heard about Act To Change, a new organization that invites celebrities to raise awareness of the harmful effects of bullying. His former middle school counselor and Act To Change board member Mindy Kordash-Shim told him about the organization, which was co-founded by actor and author Maulik Pancholy. Mattewakang then signed up and attended the workshop.

“You know, it’s important to note that the bullies themselves have experienced some kind of bullying in the past as a victim,” Kordash-Shim said. “Hurt people hurt people, and they need to receive the message as well that change is possible and that they can turn things around and they don’t need to continue down this path of hurting others.”

Attending California State University, Los Angeles in the fall to study psychology, Mattewakang wants to bring the Act To Change curriculum to his old high school. Having gone through it himself, he said he believes he can use the online resources the organization creates to help change the campus culture.


“You know, bullying [is] a big problem in society. It’s also a solvable problem,” Mattewakang said. “I think it’s a matter of being educated of what to say and what not to say, and I feel like if people are educated toward this problem of bullying, we can stop it.”