Warren High student’s story on bullies is published

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Waukegan-11/13/11, Sun./Danyus Residence Natalie Danyus, 14, of Waukegan, with a recently published short story in, "Skipping Stones" magazine. | Joe Shuman~Sun-Times Media

Updated: January 27, 2012 1:40AM

Classmates called her fat and told her she looked like a beach ball. Efforts Natalie Danyus made to befriend her fellow students were rebuffed be cause her classmates “don’t play with fat people.”

Even though Danyus is now 14 and a freshman at Warren Township High School, the emotional pain from middle school bullies lingers for her.

“I didn’t understand why they would do that,” Danyus said. “It made me doubt myself. It made me feel like I wasn’t as smart as other kids, like I wasn’t as attractive.”

Danyus channeled her feelings into a short story titled “I’m Horrible!” This was recently published in international, intercultural magazine “Skipping Stones.”

“‘I hate myself!’ Were the words that usually came out of Mika’s mouth. She did hate herself so very much,” Danyus wrote in her story.

Her story was about a chubby girl who saw herself as flawed until after she had a nightmare.

Danyus said she still has problems from her bullying experiences. Sometimes she returns to her middle school counselor to talk.

She had bullying problems at H. R. McCall Elementary School, O’Plaine School and Viking, she said. She also said she experienced cyber bullying this past summer and still runs into problems in the halls of Warren Township High School.

“(Teachers) should elaborate on it (bullying) and try to find stops to it or really be watching the kids because they don’t know that bullying affects kids like me,” Danyus said.

She did sometimes approach teachers, who advised her to ignore it. Ignoring the bullying did not make it stop, Danyus said.

Her story about bullying was her first attempt (and success) at publishing her work.

She said she wants to write and publish adventure stories that explore concepts similar to her short stories. She is writing an adventure story centering on bullying.

“I just think Natalie is a good example. A lot of kids being bullied don’t respond by being creative — they respond in a self-destructive way,” Danyus’ uncle Charles Danyus of Zion said.