Stan Walker has joined the conversation about bullying in New Zealand schools, sharing his experiences as part of Newshub's anti-bullying campaign Stand Strong NZ.
Speaking to Three's The Project, the Little Black Box hitmaker said he'd encountered situations throughout school on either side of the situation.
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"I've had experiences on both ends, I've been bullied and I kind of rose to the top and became a bully," the 28-year-old said.
"School was a weird kind of thing. I went to school, I was a little rat, I had the biggest mouth so I got bullied, but I would always become friends with the bullies. Then I would start bullying and then I felt real crap about bullying because I knew what it felt like."
Host Jesse Mulligan offered the songwriter some compassion.
"It's often the cycle - when you get a chance, you become one of those people."
Walker said he'd penned a song for people at any level of the issue: those who had been bullied, those who bully and those who stand aside.
"People are taking their lives over this sort of thing," he said.
He's not the first well-known Kiwi to share his bullying story this week. On Monday, Newshub's national correspondent Patrick Gower revealed on The Project that he was called "ugly" as a kid, and is used to being bullied online for his looks.
Gower said he was called names as a child for his appearance, which continued throughout his teenage years and into his adulthood.
"I suffered a lot of comments about my looks, starting with a nickname that I got, 'Paddy Carrots'," he said.
"I never liked that name, and I don't call it a nickname because it actually hurt me."
He has since had conversations with young people about getting into television and bullying, and how it can dramatically affect self-confidence.
"Imagine if I had listened to all the people that say mean things about my looks? Imagine if that had stopped me or slowed me down? Imagine all the amazing things I would have missed out on. What a waste it would have been."
Newshub.
