Teen's anti-bullying song hits right note with theme of forgiveness

Nakita Turner has produced an anti-bullying kit for schools. Photo / Chris Gorman

A schoolgirl who was bullied for her singing from the age of 6 has produced an anti-bullying kit for schools that includes a message of forgiveness for the bullies.

Nakita Turner, now 15, vowed that she would never go on stage again after she showed her teacher a song she wrote when she was 6 and was encouraged to perform it at the school assembly.

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"I sat up there and started singing, and I just remember a lot of people who were all just laughing at me," she said. "I remember getting off the stage and thinking I never want to go on stage and perform anything ever again."

A few years later her parents encouraged Nakita and her brother to start entering musical competitions. In their second year they won a trip to Singapore.

Nakita was home-schooled for a few years at the Christian camp her parents run at Woodend, north of Christchurch. When she returned to a mainstream school aged 12 she was horrified at how much bullying she saw.

"I was bullied for standing up in the crowd, doing my music. It's that whole tall poppy thing, if you're standing up, everyone takes you down," she said.

"Everyone got it. I know so many people who had it so much worse than me. I had enough to want to make a difference." Two years ago she decided to ask other young singers she had met through competitions to join her in creating a song about bullying.

With her school's support, she took time off to interview 180 children at six schools about bullying.

With mentoring from band The Dukes, she put what the children told her into the lyrics of One Voice, as in: "One voice can make it better, one voice can heal the pain, one voice can make a difference, one voice can change the world."

The song, released in March on her One Voice website, was downloaded 50,000 times in the first week. It has been picked up around the world.

This week she has added a set of other resources for schools including a "call to action" endorsed by celebrities such as Sir John Kirwan and the What Now TV show, support for other bullied young people, and information on "how to help the bully".

"I reckon the majority of kids who bully have been hurt. It could be jealousy, but it all comes back to hurting. If we can turn that around, it's going to be a lot better," she said.

"To move on, you have got to forgive. It just makes life a whole lot easier."