Nathan Chen Quotes

People thought I looked weird, that I talked weird.

I was called fried eggs and all that at school. Size does matter.

At school, I got teased because I was so thin and awkward-looking.

In junior high, I was picked on for being the small skinny kid who enjoyed being in drama. All the drama kids, we were looked at like we were aliens, and people would call us names and say, you know, 'It's stupid to be in drama.' They would say a lot worse things, to be honest.

Everyone has those times when you feel like you don't fit in. Everyone struggles to a certain extent with being cool and popular, but I never really let it affect me. I played sports and did theater, and school was really important to me. I had fun in high school.

I made sure that instead of people making fun of me, like every comedian probably says, I made fun of myself first so they would get distracted and just laugh. I was pretty brutally picked on for a while growing up. It was always the really pretty girls, the hot girls and then there was me. So I had to do something to get any sort of attention.

I felt like the big geek in high school. And I still feel like a big geek.

I definitely wasn't cool in high school. I really wasn't. I did belong to many of the clubs and was in leadership on yearbook and did the musical theater route, so I had friends in all areas. But I certainly did not know what to wear, did not know how to do my hair, all those things.

I went to high school, and I started getting bullied because I was very weird. I mean, freshman year I went to school in a pirate suit - I just didn't care. I'm not like the cool girls - I'm the other girl. The one that's basically a nerd, but proud of that.

Growing up, I was a target. Speaking the right way, standing the right way, holding your wrist the right way. Every day was a test, and there were a thousand ways to fail, a thousand ways to betray yourself, to not live up to someone else's standards of what was accepted, of what was normal.

It's true, I used to be so shy. I used to never talk, just sit back and do my thing. I was never bullied, though, and it was never like it was something that needed to be 'fixed', like being shy is a bad thing.

I was made fun of a lot in high school because of the way I sound and the way I was.

Even a lot of kids who are gifted can be kids who feel like wimps or nerds.

I was at an all-girls' school, so there were a lot of us who were really awkward. I was this tall when I was 11, so I was really awkward and self-conscious. No one would really have wanted to be mean to me. I was too unimportant.

When I was a teenager, I was super-awkward. I don't think I really felt comfortable in my body or with how I looked, and people were nasty.

My hair was always frizzy. I always wanted to be blonde with lovely straight hair. I was very skinny. I was quite tomboyish, just very quiet. I always wanted to fit in; I just couldn't.

I was not happy with myself as a human being when I was very young - I was afraid of people; I was afraid of talking, I didn't know how to express myself other than by being on stage.

Growing up, I was the awkward, chubby kid. I had a few close friends, but I was the first one to be bullied.

I was embarrassed to be seen in my football tracksuit because they knew I'd been training. I used to cross the road to avoid people. It was really hard. There were so many awkward situations. I just hope young girls now are able to play football and not have to experience what I did.

I was the worst-dressed person in Scranton. I was a total nerd. Obviously, I got picked on, but I was also able to find my own cluster of friends, and I think when that happens, you get by just fine.

It was easier to act, in a way, than to be myself. Somehow I just felt I was in the right place.

I’ve always wanted to be one of those people who didn’t really care much about what people thought about them.. but I don’t think I am.

A lot of people have said that I'm trying to be like Justin Bieber by wearing a hat all the time. But the truth is, I don't like the way my hair looks. It's kind of weird, so I wear a hat all the time to cover it. I've been doing it since I was thirteen.

I was bullied. I was a bit of a geek. Good-looking guys were off-limits. I didn't start dating until I was 18.

Young adult novels don't shy away from the discussion of weight issues, and 'Blubber,' the tale of an overweight, not-so-sympathetic fifth-grader bullied by her peers, is a refreshing take.