After being bullied as a child, Andrea Armijos Martinez wants to make it easier for future generations

Read this story in Spanish here. Lea esta historia en español aquí.

Andrea Armijos Martinez didn’t have an easy childhood. Andy, as she’s called, was born in Loja, Ecuador, with a disability that left her with limited motor skills, including difficulty walking and stiffness in her muscles. She was three years old when she first started walking, and it took her longer than usual to learn to write, too. Andy’s younger brother, Fabián, helped her with basic skills like writing, riding a bike, and tying her shoelaces. The family relocated to Georgia when she was 13 years old—a challenging age for any kid, but especially a teenager with a visible disability and limited English, trying to learn her way around a new country.

In school in DeKalb County, Andy remembers girls in her class teasing her in a language she couldn’t understand, and sitting with her in the cafeteria only to speak over her and mock her. “They made fun of me because I didn’t speak English,” she recalled. “Me hacían sentir como un bicho raro,” Andy continued: They made me feel like I was a weird bug. Just three months after her family arrived in the U.S., Andy’s mother picked up the phone and heard the caller making a death threat directed at her daughter. “For about a month, I had a school police officer that would follow me around,” Andy said.

Today, Andy is in her late 30s. While she’s left her childhood bullying behind, she’s also working to make sure that other kids don’t experience it—in fact, she’s made that her life’s mission. Andy’s personal experience inspired her to write a children’s book about overcoming bullying, 2021’s Bright Boy Changes the Girl’s World. “It’s a book with a message to tell children that we are all equal,” she told 285 South in Spanish. “There are children who may look different, but that doesn’t mean we are less than other students or less than another person.”

In 2023, Andy founded the Bright Boy Foundation, a nonprofit that spreads awareness about bullying, focusing primarily on helping parents get their kids the help they need by effectively advocating for them at school. Andy serves as an intermediary between the parents and schools, helping parents connect with the right authority to express their concerns. Though most of the people who seek help from the Bright Boy Foundation are from Hispanic and Latino backgrounds, Andy is working to expand the organization’s reach and serve other communities as well. 

This kind of work can be crucial. In early February, an 11-year-old girl in Texas died by suicide after her classmates teased her about her family’s immigration status. Her mother told local CNN affiliate KUVN that she didn’t know her daughter was being bullied: “It appears the school was aware of it all, but . . . they never told me what was happening with my daughter. It appears she would go once or twice a week to counseling to report what was happening.”

Though distressing, such experiences aren’t uncommon. Between 2021 and 2022, about 19 percent of students between ages 12 and 18 reported being bullied at school, according to the National Center for Education Statistics. Children who are bullied are at increased risk for mental health problems, and can experience long-term issues with self-esteem. Studies have shown, too, that immigrant children are at higher risk of being bullied than native-born children. And a Pew Research survey in 2023 found that 48 percent of Hispanic parents worry about their children being bullied, compared to 35 percent of parents of other ethnicities. 

Finding support in school—and out of school

The Bright Boy Foundation, which Andy runs with her partner and a group of volunteers, doesn’t just help parents deal with school systems—it also connects families with psychologists and helps them navigate other issues their children might be having even if they’re not related to bullying. 

Andrea Pelaez, for instance, received support from the foundation after an incident at her son’s charter school in December. Andrea’s son, Raphi, has been diagnosed with ADHD and has a tendency to flee when triggered by a stressful situation. On the day in question, Andrea says, he left his classroom during heads-down time, running across the school building while the staff struggled to catch him. A counselor who grabbed Raphi ended up restraining him—and hurting him, Andrea alleges. 

Andrea took Raphi to the emergency room and filed a complaint with Child Protective Services. Since then, Andy and the Bright Boy Foundation have helped Andrea and Raphi transition to a new school with better accommodations for a child with a disability—including a 504 plan, a formal document that schools develop to support the success of children with disabilities. Andy “has been the best help for a fresh start for my son,” Andrea said in Spanish. 

Bright Boy also organizes volunteers to be mentors to children, many of whom have experienced bullying themselves. Seventeen-year-old Skarleth Rivera, whose parents are from Mexico and El Salvador, joined the foundation last year as one such tutor. 

She currently mentors an eighth-grade boy twice a week, and in the past year has helped him bring his math grades up from 40 to 77. She also helps him with reading: They’ll go over an assignment together, discuss the vocabulary, and work on putting together summaries to check his comprehension skills. 

Skarleth also helps train other tutors, coordinating a group of 26 as they help school-age children. “With our programs, I feel like our kids have someone to trust and a role model,” Skarleth said. Those role models might not even be much older than the children they’re helping: Bright Boy’s youngest tutor is eight years old and his mentee, who has been teased while he still learns English, is seven. They meet at a local library and play and study together, Skarleth said: “I feel like they are closer because their age range is similar.”

Ashley Sierra, 19, says she was bullied for not being able to afford the same kinds of clothes as some of her peers. She’s now a mentor to younger children, and is also a student at Georgia State University majoring in business and economics. Ashley says the support provided by Andy and the Bright Boy Foundation has been a vital part of her growth: “She always reminded me of my worth, and she pushed me to meet new people that went through the same things as me, and got close with them and became friends.” 

For her part, Andy is working on a follow-up to her children’s book. She’s also writing a third book—this one for adults—about her experience as an advocate for bullying prevention and about how she overcame yet another obstacle: She was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2023, and is now in remission. 

She’s also working on creating two new programs: one related to self-esteem and self-discovery, and the other related to acquiring leadership skills. The goal is to help students from elementary to high school to figure out a career path and learn the skills required to help them get there. 

Andy’s hope is to make the Bright Boy Foundation an internationally renowned organization in bullying prevention. The organization’s name is a tribute to her brother, Fabián, who was killed in an accident just before the family moved to Georgia. Fabián had helped her through some of the toughest moments of her childhood, and was also the inspiration for her first book: It’s about a young girl bullied because of her disability—who, like Andy, receives love and support from the “Bright Boy.” “I didn’t want my story to stay only as a book,” she said. 

Learn more about the Bright Boy Foundation here, via social media here, and about volunteering opportunities here.