“When I was your age, I was a bit of a tomboy, I had short hair and was a bit chubby. I remember a group of girls in my year, for whom looks were a priority, picking on me. Luckily I had my music,” Ira Losco told the girls at St Clare College.

Ms Losco has become something of a household name, ever since she burst onto the music scene with ‘Seventh Wonder’ back in the 2002 Eurovision, when she was voted into second place; and a role model for young girls, judging by the fixated gaze of the young girls.

A crowd of over 300 Form 2 and Form 3 students, as well as some older students who were free to attend, all gathered to hear what Ms Losco had to tell them.

She explained that things are hard enough at that age, as one is keeping up with school, studies and extra-curricular activities, without the added burden of being teased and picked on at the place where you spend most time.

Ms Losco was quick to point out that she was not the sole target of these girls, so her situation was not that of being the only bullying victim, since these girls would pick on all those who did not fit into their category.

“Luckily music was my outlet, with friends of a similar mind-frame, and this helped me believe in myself. You are all special and don’t let anyone put you down,” she insisted.

The first step in this is to find that thing you are good at, and to believe you are good at it, she said. Very often bullies strike because they are insecure persons, and want to feel better about themselves.

“I guess these things happen even nowadays, and I didn’t go through as bad a time as some other children do, but my message is that we should all accept each other, and not gang up on one another,” she said.

Ms Losco also mentioned cyber bullying, a growing phenomenon as internet access widens, as she said it is all too easy to pick on people while hiding behind a screen.

She referred to a number of offensive messages she recently received on the social networking site Facebook, which she eventually discovered stemmed from her failure to accept the other person as a friend.

The person refused to accept that there was a friend limit on Facebook, which was why she was unable to accept the friend request. Ms Losco explained that she had wanted to share this story to show that nobody was shielded from such cases.

Sandra Cortis from the Education Psycho-Social Services explained to the girls that, although today we think of Ira Losco as a successful singer, there was a time when she was a student like them, and went through similar situations.

The girls stared fixedly at the stage as Ms Losco performed one of her songs, which, although not specifically about bullying, has words which make a lot of sense.

The gist of the song is basically that friends make us feel good, and, as Ms Losco puts it, “give me something to shout about”.

Earlier in the day Ms Losco also visited the Seminary in Rabat and the Handaq Boys Secondary, together with Ms Cortis, to give a similar session to the boys.

The students enjoyed a question-and-answer session by Aaron Borg and Micheline Bartolo on the topic of friendship and bullying. The points which struck the girls included the importance of keeping a group of friends and that friends are there for each other, through thick and thin.

They also watched a short video on the right of each one of them to be happy and have friends. The video encouraged them to respect one another and to take steps if they are being bullied, by telling someone who can help.

The aim of the event is to focus on the children being inspired by their talents to develop their personality, which can help them overcome problems such as bullying.