Photo courtesy of Gianna Blaudeau.
Gianna Blaudeau 2014
With dual citizenship in France and the U.S., VHHS senior Gianna Blaudeau said she’s got a lot of experience coping with the reality of not fitting in.
Fresh off of her Top 15 win in the national Miss High School America pageant, Vestavia Hills High School senior Gianna Blaudeau is wasting no time in turning what was her pageant platform — anti-bullying — into a multipronged advocacy program.
For the poised teen, anti-bullying is more than a cause du jour. Just three years ago, as a freshman at Vestavia Hills High School, she was tormented on social media and in the hallways at school. The target of older high school girls who viewed her as a threat, Blaudeau could not escape the catty behavior, which found her recreationally in her dance studio and everywhere she virtually went, thanks to social media.
“Anti-bullying is one of those topics that people like to say is overdone,” said Blaudeau. “Administrators have told me, ‘Oh, we have someone coming once a year,’ but that is not enough. I’ve even had schools reject my offer to come and speak because they just didn’t feel like it was necessary. But it is a matter that continuously needs to be addressed.”
During her freshman year, Blaudeau attracted the attention of an 11th-grade boy, who asked her out on a date. It was her first date ever, and she said she felt such excitement going into the evening.
Sensing that Blaudeau was encroaching on their territory, however, several 11th-grade girls did not like the developing relationship at all. Before long, according to Blaudeau, baseless rumors were being spread.
“I never felt safe anywhere I was,” she said. “It is so difficult to keep your head up when you feel completely surrounded. Social media is the worst. It’s the battleground of mean girls. That is where they will completely destroy you.”
With the support of her family and a few close friends, Blaudeau persevered. By her junior year, she went on to participate in the Miss Alabama High School America program. And through that, she’s finally found a forum to which she can lend her voice.
“I’ve been able to speak to over 6,000 students in Alabama about the topic of anti-bullying,” she said, adding that she focuses her remarks on the Crown C.A.R.E.S. platform, which stands for Creating A Respectful Environment in Schools.
“I strive not to do what those girls did to me,” said Blaudeau, who is currently in the final stages of launching a series of free self-motivation classes for girls, to be held this fall at the Vestavia Hills Library in the Forest.
“Poor self-worth is heavily linked to bullying,” she said. “You feel insecure about yourself, so you bully other people.”
She added that the importance of her platform is an especially difficult — but all the more vital — message to deliver in a community like Vestavia Hills.
“No one tells anybody about it,” she said. “These mean girls just get to go on doing this their entire lives. They go off to college and run sororities as mean girls. They grow up and run Vestavia, still being mean girls. That is just how it happens. But if we can teach young children that this is not right, especially if we can teach that to the girls, we can shape better, healthier behavior.”
