I spent a lot of my life afraid as a kid, even throughout high school. https://www.thedailybeast.com/the-unmaking-of-a-conservative-pundit

I graduated second to last in my class. I was a fat kid. I was bullied by others.

Children who seem unlikely to do well ... sometimes find that their work stays on the kitchen wall longer than usual; and so it was with me. I was encouraged to be creative past the usual age because I didn't have much else going for me. I was a skinny, plain, off-looking little girl, deaf in one badly damaged ear from a birth injury, and with a resulting atrophy of the facial muscles that pulled my mouth sideways whenever I opened it to speak and turned my smile into a sort of sneer. I was clever, or, as one of my teachers put it, "too clever for her own good," but not especially charming or affectionate or helpful. I couldn't seem to learn to ride a bike or sing in tune, and I was always the last person chosen for any team.

At Field Elementary School in Omaha, I'd been the only one in my class to flunk kindergarten; I don't remember why,

… I had my own personal experiences with prejudice. I was the only child of color in primary school, junior high and high school. I went through all those years feeling like a freak in one all-white school after the other. The family next door wouldn't let their daughter play with me because I was Mexican. I got on a bus once in D.C. with my father, who was very dark, and they told us to go to the back of the bus, where black people had to sit in those years. All this created in me a feeling of empathy and solidarity with people of color and formed the roots of my commitment to fighting for social justice and against racism.

Even in elementary school, I was a very assertive, aggressive kid. In the second grade I actually gave a teacher a black eye — I punched my music teacher because I didn’t think he knew anything about music and I almost got expelled. I’m not proud of that, but it’s clear evidence that even early on I had a tendency to stand up and make my opinions known in a very forceful way. The difference now is that I like to use my brain instead of my fists.

It is hard to imagine that the kid became a better person after this. More scared, more cautious, and more alienated from his peers, sure. Which perhaps is all we want.

You know, sometimes kids get bad grades in school because the class moves too slow for them. Einstein got D's in school. Well guess what, I get F's!!!

In 2007, I'm a 11-year-old boy with a litany of learning disabilities. I have severe ADD, every single day in school for me was hell. The one thing I was good at was football, I tried out for the team, and was one of only two Jewish kids to try out. Shockingly, the coach started me as a linebacker, and that meant everything to me. For once, I thought I fit in.
And the very next day in school, I see my teammates walking up to me, and I'm excited because for once in my life, I thought I'm going to make friends.
Instead, they look angry, and in their hands are rolls of quarters. And all of them decided to throw the quarters at me as hard as they physically could.
They said, 'pick it up, Jew boy. Pick it up.' I went home, and I cried and cried.
I finally stopped because I realized, 'today's Friday, and tonight I get to meet my hero CM Punk at an autograph signing.' CM Punk, the guy I looked up to. That day meant everything to me. When I went back home, I made a promise to myself. I wasn't going to be afraid to speak for myself. I, this 5 foot nothing, ADD-riddled jew boy, was going to become the best in the world.

I have retained a belief that it is the popular sporty kids at school who grow up to have the least interesting lives, and the unhappy young souls who develop into the most extraordinary adults. Whoever heard of a creative genius being understood as a child and well loved by his class mates? Who like to imagine an artist who emerged into adulthood content with his lot? And, conversely, how satisfying to hear that almost without exception, the untroubled, popular kids at school have ended up blandly as accountants, solicitors or ‘in IT’. Hold on, misfits, your day will come.

I hated the pressure that many of the children were under. Many of the kids were forced to grow up too fast, their careers were being decided for them before they were 13. If I went to an audition then they'd always choose the sweetest, prettiest kid. I wasn't obviously beautiful so I used to miss out." Ullman has also alleged that the owners taught their own children and that a certain level of favouritism seemed to exist. She also felt that the education she was receiving was of very little value. "These stupid teachers would come in and go, 'Good morning, darlings, lets all be dustbins!' I'd go, 'Oh, shut up! I wanna be a banana!'

I was already behind because I didn't speak French and I was constantly changing schools. Once we had a more stable situation, I couldn't keep up anymore, I couldn't catch up. It was a shock for me because in Algeria, I was always top of the class and, suddenly, I found myself last. And all my dreams, everything I wanted to do since I was little, I knew it was no longer going to be possible. I had to find another solution.

People like me are aware of their so-called genius at ten, eight, nine. . . . I always wondered, ``Why has nobody discovered me?'' In school, didn't they see that I'm cleverer than anybody in this school? That the teachers are stupid, too? That all they had was information that I didn't need? I got fuckin' lost in being at high school. I used to say to me auntie
``You throw my fuckin' poetry out, and you'll regret it when I'm famous, '' and she threw the bastard stuff out. I never forgave her for not treating me like a fuckin' genius or whatever I was, when I was a child. It was obvious to me. Why didn't they put me in art school? Why didn't they train me? Why would they keep forcing me to be a fuckin' cowboy like the rest of them? I was different
I was always different. Why didn't anybody notice me? A couple of teachers would notice me, encourage me to be something or other, to draw or to paint - express myself. But most of the time they were trying to beat me into being a fuckin' dentist or a teacher

One of the hardest things about having a child with autism, parents told me, was struggling to maintain hope in the face of dire predictions from doctors, school administrators, and other professionals who were supposed to be on their side. (p 9)