Victoria Beckham Urges Her Daughter To Be The Kindest Person At School Due To Relentless Bullying She Experienced During Her Own Childhood
"I often tell Harper how important it is to be kind and call out if anyone is ever being bullied."
BAKOUNINE / Shutterstock Victoria Beckham and David Beckham have been married for the last 24 years and are regarded as one of the most highly-publicized celebrity couples.
While the Beckhams tend to stay under the radar when it comes to the inner workings of their familial bond and relationship, Victoria Beckham recently gave a glimpse into the morals that she instills in her four children, especially her youngest and only daughter, Harper.
Beckham urges her daughter Harper to always be the kindest person at school.
In a recent Instagram post, Beckham opened up about a life lesson that she is constantly trying to encourage Harper to follow: Being kind and nice to everyone, particularly at school.
The former Spice Girl highlighted Anti-Bullying Week by opening up about her firsthand experience with bullying, and how she wants her 12-year-old daughter to never be the type of person to bully someone else.
"BE THE KINDEST IN THE CLASSROOM!" Beckham began in her caption, alongside two images of her and Harper. "I’m so proud to raise a strong and caring daughter!"
"Growing up I was bullied a lot at school. I often tell Harper how important it is to be kind and call out if anyone is ever being bullied — especially if there’s ever another little girl on her own in the playground because that was once her mummy!" she continued in her caption. "This #AntiBullyingWeek it’s so important to not be silent if someone is alone or being bullied."
In a subsequent interview for the Anti-Bullying Alliance, Beckham briefly opened up about experiencing bullying when she was Harper's age.
Harper "finds making friends very, very easy. I never did," Beckham shared.
Beckham previously admitted that she didn't have 'huge amounts of friends' when she was growing up.
In a July 2020 interview with Vogue Australia, Beckham explained that she'd been an outcast and struggled with her confidence during her younger years.
"When I was at school, I was quite an awkward teenager; I didn't have a huge amount of friends, and looking back I recognize that I was bullied at times," Beckham told the publication. "I would never want anyone else to feel how I was made to feel."
When Harper started school, Beckham instructed her to engage with those who were all alone and ask them to play with her. She claimed that her one hope was for any little girl going to school with Harper to know that they would never have to be alone.
In a January 2017 open letter to her 18-year-old self, Beckham got candid about suffering from body-image issues. In the letter published in British Vogue, Beckham wrote that pre-Spice Girls was a rough time in her life. She was still coping with the memories of being bullied as a child but acknowledged that the bullying turned her into the strong woman she ended up becoming.
"You haven’t forgotten being bullied at school, have you? Do you recall that first day at secondary school?" Beckham wrote. "Kitted out in the full St Mary’s High School uniform, you stood in the freezing playground while other teenagers walking past threw soggy tissues and old Coke cans that they plucked from the puddles. But the thick skin that you developed then is already standing you in good stead, and it will do so for the rest of your life."
The importance of spreading empathy and kindness is something that parents should always work to instill within their children, even among celebrities. Through her candid openness about her childhood, Victoria Beckham sends a powerful message to her daughter and the public: kindness triumphs over everything, and a little act of compassion can often contribute to building a more supportive community.
"Growing up, my parents always taught me the importance of kindness," Beckham told Vogue Australia. "And with my children, I’ve always said the same thing: it doesn’t matter how smart you are, how you look or how you dress, what’s most important is that you are kind to other people."
Nia Tipton is a Chicago-based entertainment, news, and lifestyle writer whose work delves into modern-day issues and experiences.