Monday 27th March 2006 - NOTE TO PHILLIP WILLIS MP - VERY IMPORTANT
So..... an MP, called Phillip Willis, gets up in the House of Commons last week (so I'm told) and says to the Home Secretary that he thinks Jodie Marsh should be banned from doing a tour of schools for Beat Bullying. He's 64. He's a Liberal Democrat. He's under the impression that I am already organising a tour of schools (which I'm not yet anyway - a simple call to Beat Bullying and/or my agent would have confirmed that) and he wants to stop me from doing it. His reason? I'm not a good role model due to some of the things I write on this blog.
Firstly, I want to know why he's wasting public money (that's MY money and YOUR money - if you're a tax-payer anyway) on getting up to speak about something he hasn't even done any research on. His wages are paid by our taxes. And I pay a hell of a lot of tax. Secondly, why is he wasting not only our money, but the Home Secretary's time?! I'll tell you why.....
Remember George Galloway? I know, I know, nobody WANTS to remember him, but, here's the point - he's an MP that wants to be a celebrity. He wants everyone in the country to know his name. Do you know where I'm going with this yet? Yes, friends.... Here we have, I think, yet another MP trying to make a name for himself by starting a public war with me. Has anybody heard of Phillip Willis?! No.... didn't think so.
This man knows that if he starts a public war with an already famous person, he can suddenly be in all the papers and magazines. It's that simple. An MP linked to an unlikely famous person's name and hey presto - overnight fame.
I wasn't bothered by this (other than I really am sick to death of people trying to get famous off my back). This old man can say what he likes. Here's the truth:
It doesn't matter what I say on my blog. I never insult people who haven't insulted me first. I never insult anyone who, in my opinion, doesn't deserve it. If somebody starts a public war with me, I'll happily finish it, as I am no longer the weak, vulnerable, suicidal victim I was at school. Nowadays I'm strong and opinionated. I won't lie down and be slaughtered. If someone has something to say about me, then I'll have an answer. For example, when someone like Jade Goody (of all people) is calling me ugly, then I think it's fair to say that she needs to lose a few pounds. After all, it's me that's been on numerous lads mags' covers, not her. I'm just putting her in her place and telling her to pipe down. I don't encourage others to be like me and I certainly don't encourage violence or nastiness. I wish the whole world was a nice place. I wish I didn't have d*ckheads like Jade Goody slating me publicly without even knowing me. It's a constant battle for me to try and get people to be nice. I've done nothing to deserve their insults in the first place. These people don't even know me. What I say in retaliation to people like Jade, who are constantly slagging me off is my business and it's my way of dealing with people who are picking on me for no reason. I'm not saying what I do is right, but it's right for me. If I point out the facts then it makes me feel better.
When I was bullied at school, half my bullies were thick as sh*t and ugly to boot. I was too upset to even notice this. Instead of thinking to myself "Ok, you're calling ME ugly, yet you are the ugly one - inside AND out", I thought "you're right, I AM ugly, there's nothing I can do to change it, my life is sh*t and it's never going to get any better". In fact, people, I wanted to kill myself and thought about doing it on many an occasion. I used to cry myself to sleep. I thought life was always going to be that way. I didn't have any friends at school, I used to hide in the library at lunch times so as to avoid having food thrown at me or insults screamed at me. I was the freak of the school. I was in a very dark, very lonely, very scary place. As a teenager, I thought it would always be this way for me and that I had no chance of ever being liked or having friends. I thought I was the ugliest thing to ever walk the earth and I didn't understand why people were so nasty. I hadn't done anything to deserve it. I asked myself on a daily basis "Why me?" It was terrifying and depressing.
Now, as an adult, I know that I don't have to put up with it. I do have a tongue (and a sharp one at that) and I'm able to stand up for myself. I have self-worth now, which is something I didn't have at school. I KNOW I'm not ugly (the last time I checked, Front mag isn't a magazine that usually puts mingers on it's cover) and I refuse to listen to people saying I am. I prefer nowadays to say "OK, you're calling me ugly, let's look at YOU missy, cos I'm sure as hell right in saying that you're not perfect either!"
Second to that, my blog is a form of entertainment and I am an entertainer. Not that what I write isn't true (of course, all of it is) and not that I don't mean everything I say, but it's written in such a way that it's entertaining. Sometimes, when I'm having a bad day and yet another moron has called me "ugly" or whatever; I retaliate in my blog because I can. My life is like a soap, an outrageous soap. Pretty much everything I do and think is on here because No 1. I love to write and No 2. It entertains people. It's my way of giving something back to the fans. Even people that don't like me read my daily blog so it must be good (including MP's who really should be spending their days doing important things like: figuring out how we're going to combat the problem of how many homeless people we have in this country, or doing something to help our troops in Iraq, or making hospitals better)!
Anybody that takes my blog that seriously or gets all irate about it really shouldn't be reading it. It's an over-the-top bird's eye view of my life and what happens on a daily basis. It highlights the ridiculousness of being a "celebrity" and also gives people a very intimate picture of my life, my real life that is, not the one most celebrities would have you think is real. As anybody who reads it all the time knows, I talk about anything and everything. I WANT to entertain. Whether that's by writing something really funny or ridiculous, or whether it's by writing something so full of emotion, it makes people cry (as my Big Brother blog did ); I want people to see the real me and I want to break up the boredom for the people that do read it. If someone can take 5 minutes (out of what is possibly a very boring working day) to have a chuckle about what I'm getting up to, then I am achieving what I set out to do.
So.... To get back to the old MP, here's the thing:
My blog has nothing to do with what I can achieve in terms of helping bullied kids and/or teenagers. I have been where they are. I have been so low I've wanted to end my own life. I know what they're going through and I know what I can say to help them. Every year, kids are still killing themselves because of being bullied. If I can stop even ONE of those from that, then I have done a good job. I have given half of my Big Brother charity money to Beat Bullying (£25,000) and I have worked for free on numerous occasions trying to raise awareness for the charity. I receive thousands of letters a week from young girls and boys who are being bullied and are in desperate need of advice or help. They look to me because they know that I have been there and that I survived it. I am a successful young woman; I have overcome many things in life. If you ask any child or teenager who they would rather take advice from: me, Jodie Marsh, young celeb who made her bullying she suffered public from the minute she got famous, or stuffy 64 year old Liberal Democrat MP who no one has heard of: who do you think they're going to choose?! Erm, yeah..... I think the answer would be me every time.
I'm not saying I'm right all the time in the things I say or do, hell NOBODY is, but I sure as hell can do and say the right things to a child or teenager who is thinking of ending their life because it's so sh*t. I can speak on their level; I understand what they are going through. I hand write letters all the time to bullied kids and I even phone them at their homes to have a chat and give them advice. I keep all the letters that get sent to me, if Phillip whatsisface wants to see them, I'd be more than happy to go up to the House of Commons with thousands of them in sacks. In fact, I'm pretty sure I could round up hundreds of people I've helped who would be willing to go with me and tell him a thing or two about how I helped them to cope with the bullying they were suffering. The point is, if this man thinks he can do better, if he thinks that kids will listen to him (or someone like him) more than they will listen to someone like me, if he thinks that he can even talk on the level of a child or teenager then he can bloody well think again. I wonder if he even knows the slang words that are used by kids all over England today. For example, does this posh 64 year old Liberal Democrat know what "nang" means, or "buffers", or "butters"? No? I do. That's because I am in touch with the youth of today. I know how to talk to them; I know what they are feeling and thinking.
I will fight this man all the way, if he so wishes. I have the proof in my house. That is: thousands upon thousands of letters from kids who are being bullied and want advice from someone that has also been through it and survived it; that's me. It doesn't matter what I say on my blog. My blog has absolutely no bearing on what I can do for bullied kids. When a child feels so low that they are thinking of ending their own life and then I step in and am able to give them hope, as I too, was at that same place 12 years ago, nothing I write on my blog even comes into it. I can help these kids - he can't. Most schools still don't know how to combat or deal with bullying. I think that every school should have at least one person specifically assigned to deal with it. Not a teacher; just someone the kids can go and talk to on the level, someone that's cool and nice and that the kids respect, someone that can deal with bullying and put a stop to it, leaving the teachers to get on with teaching. Bullying is still a huge problem. It won't go away until the correct mechanism is put into place. I will eventually devote all of my time to doing charity work and I will fight for something more to be done about bullying. At the moment, not enough is being done. I know this because I hear it all the time. It's the same old story: kids go to their teacher or headmaster with a bullying problem (like I did) and get told to "stay away from the bullies". That's no bloody use. It's not the teachers' faults; they are just too busy and stressed to do anything more about it. Unless, of course, you do get the odd teacher who is so amazing and who cares so much, they WILL go out of their way; like School Teacher Lauren. She works 15 or 16 hour days. Even when the bell goes at 3pm or whatever time, she sits at home planning lessons and marking books until midnight. Her job is never done; yet, she still finds the time to pay a home visit (off her own back) to a child who is refusing to come to school due to being severely bullied and is too SCARED to come to school. She sits down with the kids who are being bullied and tries to find a way to stop it and/or make their life easier. She's not a bullying expert; she just does what she can. She's amazing.
What it really needs, however, is someone who IS an expert and who CAN put a total stop to it; and it needs a person like this in every school in the country.
Now, Mr MP man, if you want a fight about this; you got one. I will not back down; I will not stop helping the kids I help. I can do far more for them than you can ever dream of; and I do. Stop wasting tax-payers money on things that you can't even get the facts straight on. I am not, as yet, organising a tour of schools and even if I were, why would you try and stop me from doing something good? With so much hatred and evil in the world today, you are trying to stop someone from actually doing something really really good. What's that all about?! Shouldn't you be concentrating on real problems, as mentioned above, and shouldn't you be trying to stop some of the evil that is happening? Instead you are getting involved in something to try and make a name for yourself; something that actually is a very good thing and something that, other than the charities, I don't see anybody else doing anything productive about.
If you want to have a vote on it ie. Send a letter round the schools to see if they would want me to come in and meet the kids and give a talk on my own bullying and how I survived it - I'm very willing to do that. Leave a petition in every school that the kids themselves can sign if they want me to pay them a visit or not sign if they don't want me to. Surely as it is the kids we are talking about here - it should be up to them to decide, no?! Come on Willis - let's give it a go.
I am going into a school in April to give a talk and meet the kids. I didn't organise it, the school phoned my agent and asked if I would do it. Did you hear that Willis? The school ASKED for me! I'm very much looking forward to it and I will be honest and open and help anyone that needs it. I will happily talk through my own experiences and answer any questions that may be thrown at me.
I am not the person you think I am and I will prove that to you; even if it takes me twenty years to do it. My job, my website, my image is all a part of my work; my "celebrity caricature" and the real Jodie Marsh is an educated, intelligent and compassionate young woman. Show me another celeb that can do what I can do with bullied kids (and is prepared to drop everything to do it) and I'll back down; but since you can't and you yourself can't do any better than me with this ongoing problem, I suggest you go and find something useful to do with your time (since I'm paying your wages anyway).
If you want to make a name for yourself using a celebrity to do it - why don't you campaign for Kate Moss to be dropped from her various modelling contracts due to her apparent excessive use of drugs?! What sort of a message is that sending out to the youth of today? That it's ok to do drugs? That you can still be hailed an icon even though you're out of your face on coke? That it's COOL to do drugs!? Get real. Our country is in a mess. Our media and people like yourself do not help matters. Kate Moss has been caught doing coke and yet she's still hailed as one of the great icons of our time. Pur-leeeeease! The woman is so thin, she doesn't look healthy and she has a child. She's caught doing class A illegal drugs and yet her face is plastered all over billboards and is even on my TV every time I turn it on.
Now - go and do something useful. I will fight you if you so wish, but believe me; I will win. I actually care about the youth of today, unlike you. And if I do at some point in the future, organise a tour of schools and you do manage to put a stop to it, then I suggest that you be the one to tell the kids that I can't visit them after all cos you don't like me.
Have a good day folks
Xxxxx
