Rising Tejano star Devin Banda stood up to a cyberbully in an emotional Facebook Live video over the weekend. The 22-year-old singer posted the video on her personal Facebook page on Saturday (Oct. 28) with the caption, “Please don’t mistake my tears as weakness. I cry when I’m angry.”
Banda says in the video that a “fake profile” posted hurtful words on her an Instagram photo of herself and that the she has been a victim of cyberbullying since she began in the music industry just a couple of years ago.
“There’s people out there that get the satisfaction of hurting others to make themselves feel better,” said an emotional Banda. “It’s really, really sad. It’s the reason why this industry hurts a lot — everyone wants to throw everyone down and it’s not fair, it’s not cool — there’s so many talented people, and I’m not talking about myself, there’s so many talented people out there that continuously get knocked down because these people don’t want to see other people succeed in life.”
Other rising Tejano artists commented on Banda’s video that they are also victims of cyber bullying and hurtful comments, including Crystal Torres, who won Best New Female Artist at the 2014 Tejano Music Awards, and 2015 Tejano Music Idol winner Monica Saldivar.
Tejano superstar Elida Reyna shared a message of support to Banda, “Keep your head up! Unfortunately, there will always be naysayers! Just keep working hard and stay relevant! Focus on your goals ….never be afraid to reach out to me!”
Pete Astudillo also added a message of support, “Stay strong and never stop believing in yourself.”
Banda gave more details on why she was so emotional inthe video in a later post, “I am very confident in myself and please know that a person hiding behind a screen won’t change that. I wasn’t always confident and maybe early on in my life those words would’ve had a horrible effect on me. But, that wasn’t the case. I was crying because I was angry and that this is looked at as normal. I was crying because I know there are people out there that deal with this way more often then myself. I was crying because I’m sure there are people out there that are getting these kind of messages and believing what these losers are saying. I was crying because…can you imagine people that are mentally not able to handle that kind of treatment and these people would literally be playing with fire by bullying people that are at their breaking point. I have my family. I have my love. I have the support of you amazing people. But not everyone has that.”
Banda released her debut album Unstoppable in March 2017.
October is National Bullying Prevention Month and according to Cyber bullying statistics from the i-SAFE foundation, over half of adolescents and teens have been bullied online, and more than 1 in 3 young people have experienced cyber threats online.
WATCH: Devin Banda stands up against cyberbully
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