14 Years Old And Living With Asperger’s, Ryan Wiggins Makes Short Film To Document Aftermath Of Bullying

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If there are no hero’s to save you, then you be the HERO ~ Denya Kyosht

ryan This past November, a 14-year-old from the UK, Ryan Wiggins, decided to offer people an immersive, if difficult to watch, look into the consequences of bullying via the release of his short film, “Tomorrow.”

Three minutes long, the video depicts Wiggins, who was diagnosed with a mild form of autism popularly known as Asperger’s syndrome at the age of 10, reflecting on the torment he receives from classmates on a typical day. At one point, in g-s between returning home from school and taking his medication, the video even goes so far as to display anonymous text messages to his phone imploring him to kill himself. “How much more of this do I have to take?” Wiggins comments soon after. “When will it end?”

Originally released to coincide with the UK’s National Anti-Bullying Week (Nov. 16 to 20), Wiggins’s video, which he also wrote and produced using his mother’s video camera, a broken tripod, and a selfie stick, has since gone viral, accumulating a quarter-million views and counting on YouTube. It was released through the autism charity organization that Wiggins has previously collaborated with, Anna Kennedy Online .

thespunkercomemoticon “From as early as I can remember, other children seemed to want to have a dig at me. I was constantly teased at primary school, with people calling me names like ‘nerdy’ and ‘gay.’ Once one started, it wouldn’t take long before others joined in,” Wiggins elaborated on his past bullying experience in an interview with the Daily Mail this November. “At worse, they would push me around physically and a couple of kids threatened to beat me up in an alleyway. I tried to toughen up and deal with it, but it gets unbearable after a while.”

7b49533aaea8d1a7683675e3877e6531 “I wanted to make a film that shows people just how helpless and isolated you actually feel when people say and do horrible stuff to you over and over again. It wears you down. I think it’s really important we all keep talking about this issue.” Wiggins said. “Putting my feelings onto film was a big step for me, but I hope it will encourage other kids to come forward if they’re being bullied. It’s so important not to suffer in silence.”