The Teen Heroes column is sponsored by the Helen Diller Family Foundation. To learn more about the foundation’s $36,000 Diller Teen Tikkun Olam Awards, visit http://dillerteenawards.org.
(JTA) — For Val Weisler freshman year of high school was marred by tears and unhappiness as classmates bullied her daily for being shy and withdrawn.
“I was a different person and I didn’t feel comfortable,” said Weisler, now a 16-year-old junior at Clarkstown High School South in West Nyack, N.Y. “I was hiding myself and hating myself. I didn’t feel welcomed.”
She soon realized, however, that “there were so many other teenagers who had bigger problems than me.”
Weisler set about to create a community of support for teens experiencing bullying. In January 2013, with money that she had saved from babysitting, she launched a website, The Validation Project. The site encourages teens to become “Validators” by matching them with a mentor to learn a set of specific skills that can then be applied to local community service. In addition, the teens can work with others in the project’s network to spread positive messages through social media or brainstorm together to develop and implement social action campaigns. To date, Weisler said there are more than 5,550 teenagers and 2,000 mentors with chapters in all 50 states and in 100 countries involved with the project. They have also raised a collective $25,000 in goods and services for people in need, she added.
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