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Olivia's Letters is a lesson plan about bullying and cyber bullying that is designed to develop empathy and bystander awareness in children and youth. It was inspired by a cyberbullying incident in Marin County, CA. Two Mill Valley teens empathized with the young girl who had been victimized and took it upon themselves to start an "Olivia's Letters" campaign to boost her spirits. Their actions resulted in over 14,000 letters to Olivia from people across the country and around the world.

The Today Show interview with Olivia Gardner might be a useful addition to the lesson plan on Olivia's letters.

The Today Show interview with Olivia Gardner might be a useful addition to the lesson plan on Olivia's letters.

As teens across the country head back to school this year, far too many of them are facing the entrance doors to their schools with feelings of fear, trepidation and dread. For an increasing number of students across the nation, schooldays are filled with the never-ending cycle of taunting and abuse from their bullies. But this year, in an unprecedented display of solidarity, thousands of strangers who have been through the same harrowing experiences, are sharing their private tales of torment with these teens for the first time ever because of the story of Olivia Gardner.

Olivia Gardner, a northern California teenager, was severely taunted and cyber-bullied by her classmates for more than two years. News of her bullying spread, eventually reaching two teenage girls from a neighboring town, sisters Emily and Sarah Buder. The girls were so moved by Olivia's story that they initiated a letter-writing campaign to help lift her spirits. It was a tender gesture of solidarity that set off an overwhelming chain reaction of support, encouragement, and love. In Letters to a Bullied Girl, Olivia and the Buder sisters share an inspiring selection of messages that arrived from across America-the personal, often painful remembrances of former targets, remorseful bullies, and sympathetic bystanders. Letters to a Bullied Girl examines our national bullying epidemic from a variety of angles and perspectives, and includes practical guidance from bullying expert Barbara Coloroso, author of The Bully, the Bullied, and the Bystander. Though addressed to Olivia, the letters speak to all young people who have been bullied, offer advice and hope to those who suffer, and provide a wake-up call to all who have ever been involved in bullying.

There is also a video interview with the Buder sisters on this site.

Sarah and Emily Buder talk about why they started the Olivia's letters project and where it's taken them.

News coverage about a middle school student victimized by online and offline bullying has prompted a grassroots solidarity campaign. She's received over 1,400 letters of support so far, and it's serving as a teachable moment that no school should ignore. Olivia Gardner was just a sixth grader when the bullying began two years ago. Previously diagnosed with epilepsy, Olivia was tormented by her peers because of the disease. In school, they'd call her "retard." Online, they created an "Olivia Haters" page on MySpace and would use it to make fun of her. The school district eventually got involved, bringing in the families of the kids who were involved in the bullying, as well as holding a series of student assemblies on the problem. But it was too little, too late for Olivia, who soon transferred to another school.

Video interview with Olivia Gardner on the Today Show. Fourteen-year-old Olivia Gardner gets encouragement from other teens. People around the world are pouring their hearts out and offering words of encouragement and sympathy to a Northern California teenager who was taunted and teased so mercilessly that she stayed up nights thinking of ways she could kill herself. Thousands of letters have arrived already since word spread in the media and in cyberspace about the plight of 14-year-old Olivia Gardner.

Original coverage of the Olivia Gardner story in the San Francisco Chronicle. See: Bullied girl finds comfort in letters from hundreds of strangers, a campaign begun by two Mill Valley sisters in 2007.

We hear so much in the news about teen meanness and harassment toward each other online that it's quite amazing to find a national story about kindness. In the case of Olivia Gardner, the kindness came from two sisters in a nearby town, Sarah and Emily Buder in Mill Valley, Calif., who read in the newspaper about how Olivia was being bullied and wanted to help.

An impulse to help a Marin girl who had been bullied by her classmates has transformed the lives of two Mill Valley sisters and led to a paperback book being sold nationwide. Two years ago, sisters Emily, 18, and Sarah Buder, 15, read a newspaper story about the plight of Olivia Gardner, a then 13-year-old Novato girl who had been ridiculed by her classmates and subjected to an "Olivia Haters" Web site that drove her to change schools three times and eventually to drop out of school altogether.