via washingtoncitypaper.com

OIympic swimming star Michael Phelps spoke out against bullies in between swims at this summer’s Olympics, talking about how he was bullied for his gangly limbs, big ears, and lisp. He remembers the bullies flicking his ears and tossing his baseball cap out the window. This was in addition to struggling with his studies and an absentee father. Even when he threw himself into swimming, high-school classmate Katy Saine says he still “got a hard time about being a swimmer and not a football or lacrosse player.”

When Phelps started down the road to gold at his first Olympics in 2000, one of the bullies came up and congratulated him. Phelps recalls looking at the kid and “said he was sorry, but he didn’t remember him.”

Other athletes have come out about problems with kids, including wide receiver Terrell Owens who said his skin was “too dark” and he was treated as an outcast by the other African-American kids in his hometown.

Even Hollywood celebrities can sympathize with Phelps and kids all over, including Disney star, Demi Lovato who says that bullies forced her to leave her public school. “Girls were just really vicious,” Lovato said. "It was a lot of verbal abuse.”

It may be hard to believe now, but bulked-up Batman actor Christian Bale had run-ins with playground bullies, toughing it out through “beating [s] from several boys for years. They put me through hell,” Bale said, “punching and kicking me all the time.”

But these celebs, like Phelps, have used their tough experiences and turned them into positives, becoming role models for kids everywhere. The phenom's mom, Debbie Phelps, said “the bullying and adversity made him be stronger and work harder;” and as a middle-school principal, Ms. Phelps hopes that other kids will have similar success stories as well.

By CGG Contributing Reporter Julia Steers