Man, it’s tough to be a kid.  Kids are cruel, horrible people (like adults, but without the decency to hide their cruelty.  Katie Goldman, a six-year-old girl in Chicago, Illinois, has enough strikes against her when it comes to being teased.  For one, she’s adopted, and for two, she wears eyeglasses.  However, when some first-grade boys at her school stated teasing her for liking Star Wars, that’s when they crossed the line and earned a backlash from the Internet.  Using the hash tag #MayTheForceBeWithKatie, people on Twitter and Facebook have been rushing to sweet little Katie’s side, and even the official Star Wars blog is taking up Katie’s defense!

Katie’s mom, Carrie Goldman, told the story of Katie in Chicago Now Magazine.  Katie, being a Star Wars fan, wears a Star Wars backpack and carried a Star Wars water bottle, until one day Katie said, “My Star Wars water bottle is too small.  It doesn’t hold enough water.  Can I take a different one?”

She picked out a pink bottle, but her mother wouldn’t let the issue alone.  Ms. Goldman wrote, ‘I kept pushing the issue, because it didn’t make sense to me.  Suddenly, Katie burst into tears.  She wailed, “The first grade boys are teasing me at lunch because I have a Star Wars water bottle.  They say it’s only for boys.  Every day they make fun of me for drinking out of it.  I want them to stop, so I’ll just bring a pink water bottle.”‘

Little do those Star Wars bullies know that in about 15 years they’ll be knocking one another down in an attempt to find a fellow sci-fi fan to date.  They’ll learn; I just hope the bullies don’t push Katie away from her love of a galaxy far, far away.

Tags: May The Force Be With Katie, girl bullied for liking Star Wars, Star Wars fan bullied, bullies, elementary school, first-grade girl bullied for liking Star Wars, viral campaigns, online support, Katie Goldman, Carrie Goldman, Chicago, Illinois

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