Dear little sister,

Girls are mean. No matter how old you are, girls are mean. Sure, there are the stereotypical high school mean girls, but unfortunately, it doesn't stop after high school. There will always be mean girls. But if you can learn to rise above it now, you'll be unbreakable for the rest of your life.

I'm sure you've watched the movies about the girls who were bullied so horribly that they commit suicide, or tried to anyway. I'm sure you don't think those things could happen to you.

I know I didn't.

Who would've thought that after a powerful and popular television series like "13 Reasons Why," girls would still be mean enough to push others to their breaking point, driving them towards the end of the spectrum where they hate their own existence and wish they didn't have to show their face in school every day. The things you see on t.v., the bullying and harassing and the mean posts and the rumors, it all happens.

It's real life.

You start dating a boy that you like, completely innocent of any wrongdoings to anyone else, but the ex and/or her friends will do whatever they can to ruin you and drive you to hate your own life. The things you thought only happened in the movies, happen to you. But they don't see it as bullying. They just act as though they are somehow the victims of some other effed up drama, and act as though they love and care about everyone when something tragic happens.

Ironic.

You would think people would appreciate life more after a fellow classmate passed earlier that year. They may act like they do, but they don't. They continue to take life for granted, and they take others' lives for granted until it's too late. They hate you while you're alive, but once you're dead, they will forget any bad thing you've done. They will forget how they didn't like you, they will sing your praises and talk about how amazing of a person you were, and ignore how miserable they actually made you feel.

Mean girls.

Eventually, you're faced by a group of mean girls who wait for you to walk into your class and gang up on you in front of your classmates, yelling and cursing at you for no good reason other than for their own entertainment. You finally shed a few tears after reaching rock bottom, after finally being pushed to your breaking point. But you shake it off and go about the rest of your day pretending not to care. And then you find yourself trying to force yourself not to care. And then you're stone cold and miserable, and the people who watched you get harassed and bullied don't even notice you slipping away and losing yourself.

And then finally, you're lost.

No one cares enough to see you drowning in your own thoughts. Everyone just pretends it never happened. They try to go about everything as if you were never violated in such a way that sent you calling your mom from school crying, begging her to let you leave because all you wanted was to stop. You just wanted to stop thinking, stop talking, maybe even stop breathing.

You just wanted everything to stop.

But you swallowed your pride and went about your day pretending to be strong and un-phased by the ruthless mean girl who attacked you for having a reaction to the f***ed up things she did to you before that, when she changed the game and made it impossible for you to go anywhere in public without having to worry about her being there to shoot you down and harass you, yet again. When she made it impossible for you to get your morning coffee before school or work in peace.

But the worst part of it is your friends. Not all of them, but the important ones who make it hurt almost just as much as the mean girls did, those friends who play both sides and leave you in the dust. The friends who make you feel like you have a strong support system to fall back on, but walk away when you're falling. The friends who throw you under the bus, not to hurt you, but inconsiderately and without realizing it, those are the people who hurt you the most.

It's pretty sad how people get off on making others feel so horrible about themselves, but it can't get much worse than all of this, and if you made it through this then you survived what is likely the worst thing you could encounter in high school society. High school isn't the end. There is life after you graduate. You won't have to see most of these people ever again.

You're too young to let them ruin you now.

My advice to you is to just keep moving forward, and don't worry about the possibility of these things happening to you. Don't worry about what others think of you, but be someone you want others to think highly of. Know the difference. You don't have to please everyone, and you never will so you might as well do what makes you happiest. After all, you are the only person you're guaranteed to have for the rest of your life.

Let yourself feel all of the emotions that come with heartbreaks and betrayals and mean girls and fights. Cry. Let yourself cry. Be an emotional wreck. Trust me when I tell you, the last thing you want to do is teach yourself not to care, to turn it all off. I do it all the time and it's one of the most bittersweet qualities I possess. It's both my strength and my weakness. But if the pain comes, so will the happiness.

Be patient.

I hope you don't have to go through anything like this. Even though it happens, it doesn't happen very often. I was just one of the unlucky ones I suppose. But if you do end up one of the unlucky ones or if you have to deal with mean girls in even the slightest of ways, just remember that things will get better, and this isn't the end.

Love always,

your big sister