Interview with children's author Kelly Sharpe: making a noise about bullying

Being the only two girls in high school who loved professional wrestling, it probably won’t surprise you that my sister, Lucy, and I often got picked on. In fact, people often liked to pick on most things we liked, from wrestling to our favourite bands. Looking back, they were just small comments, but growing up, when you like something with a passion that means a lot to you, it can be hard to hear negative words being said against them. Not to mention frustrating when you just want to enjoy what you like without others being mean about it.

Those years in high school gave Lucy and me what I like to call our ‘Superpower.’ And that is that no matter how many negative comments we heard about wrestling or our favourite music, it just meant we loved them even more, and instead of shying away from what we loved, we actually made more noise about them. We became firm believers in ‘talking about what you love instead of bashing what you hate.’ To this day, if you like a song, a book, or a movie that we don’t, well, to you, we’d say ‘enjoy.’ We are all unique in our looks, personalities, likes and dislikes. We should own our uniqueness and be kind to others about theirs.

When writing my debut book ‘Daisy Wrestles with Confidence’, there was no doubt in my mind that, while Daisy might be struggling with a bullying situation, she would always be confident about her love for wrestling. Daisy was going to make all the noise about wrestling, even if, to start with, she didn’t have anyone to share it with. Wrestling and watching her mum wrestle makes Daisy happy, and I, as the author, would never take away her happiness.

If you pick up a copy of ‘Daisy Wrestles with Confidence,’ I want you to know that you should never let anyone make you feel bad about what brings you joy and, in turn, don’t ever make someone feel bad about what brings them joy. If we were all allowed to ‘Make a Noise’ about the things we love without fear of hate or negativity, the world would be a happier place.

Find what makes you confident, love it and yourself and always, always be kind to yourself and others.