The fact that Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling created the sorcerous world of Hogwarts as a single mother off welfare is no secret. But she recently revealed in a letter to a fan was that she, too, was the victim of bullying in school.
American Harry Potter fan Sacia Flowers wrote a letter to Rowling, saying that the novels helped the teen relate to Potter and cope with her parents' drug addiction that killed both when she was 13, the Daily Mail reports. Flowers said she was also bullied by her peers in school.
"I know what it is like to be picked on, as it happened to me, too, throughout my adolescence," Rowling wrote back. "Being a teenager can be completely horrible."
The author said she was called "Rowling Pin," and said she "wouldn't go back if you paid [her]," according to the Daily Mail.
Bullying has plagued teenagers in and out of school, and some say parents are critical to a child coping with bullies.
With the proliferation of new media, students are even more susceptible to being victimized through various outlets on the web. Just this month, a teen spoke out on national television after she spent two months in Juvenile Court for bullying a peer who hanged herself.
In a separate case, a school district in Texas has launched an investigation into an online "burn book" that targeted students at a school on Facebook.