It’s Bullying Awareness Week this week on Family Channel! That means until this Sunday, all of their programming is geared towards helping kids learn how to handle and approach bullying with the WHAT’S UP, STAND UP! campaign.
Last night, viewers got to see the premier of Tyler Medeiros’ video for his song, “What’s up, Stand up!” on Family! We got the chance to speak with Tyler about the campaign, his personal experiences with bullies, and writing “What’s up, Stand up!”…
What made you want to get involved in the What’s Up, Standup! campaign?
T: Well, one of the biggest issues in schools is bullying. I think it’s a good idea and what they want to do and everything so I just wanted to help out with schools and kids as much as I could.
Can you tell me about any personal experience you’ve had with bullying?
T: When I was a little kid, maybe grade four or five. There was a kid in the class that bugged everyone, I mean no one liked this kid. So he would just pick on everyone and bother everyone and not let anyone do their work or whatever they had to do. We kind of just all stuck together and ignored me and he got the hint about how he was acting and stopped.
What advice would you give to others that are dealing with bullies?
T: To be strong, to not let bullying change who you are and how you would react to it. And just tell someone that could help without being shy.
In what way do you think other musicians like your self could do more to address the problem of bullying with young people today?
T: To just not overlook it, to give it the attention that it deserves, cause a lot of people talk about it without doing anything about it.
For the song, What’s Up, Standup!—how involved were you in the writing process of that song?
T: The writing process was probably 10%—I had writers there who would write songs for me, but they came up with a new writing style for what it was for. For anti-bullying, they wanted something strong and hard and powerful, so they came up with a rock type of song. When they showed me the song, I liked it, and we went over the lyrics and everything just fit.
How do you think it’s different from the music you usually put out?
T: I find it way different than music that I’ve put out because a lot of it is about girls and love and how you feel, and it’s more upbeat pop music, and this was kind of like you have a message and you want it to be heard.
Thank you, Tyler! To watch his video and see all the programming during Family Channel’s Bullying Awareness Week, click here!