MEDIA

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Her parents could have responded in a number of ways, from contacting the school administration demanding action to pulling Alyssa out of the school altogether. But her mother, Tiffany, took a more direct route.

“My mom called her mom, and she brought the girl over,” Alyssa said. “I was kind of scared because I didn’t know what would happen. But we talked it out.”

They became friends. The incident opened up a channel for communication, and Alyssa found she wasn’t alone in her ordeal when an older relative told her about how he had been bullied as a child. He had been overweight, and that became an excuse for some other students to pick on him and make his school life one of anxiety and fear. When he heard the bullies who were tormenting him say they were going on a “pig hunt,” he hid in the boys’ restroom to avoid being their prey. Although she was only 8 years old at the time, Alyssa already loved writing stories, and hearing about her relative’s experience inspired her to write a story about bullying.

Drawing heavily on her relative’s real-life experience, she created a tale about a fourth-grade boy named Max who is overweight and bullied because of it. Just like her relative did, Max hides in the restroom when his tormentors tell him they’re going on a pig hunt, and he’s the pig. But Alyssa threw in her own plot twist, bringing in the boy’s cousin Sophia — named for her own cousin — who comes from France to visit during summer vacation and teaches Max how to make some outrageously flavored pizzas that are a hit with family and friends. Max then dreams of becoming a gourmet chef and begins writing a pizza cookbook. But that only becomes another avenue for the bullies to harass him.

In fact, the bullying gets so bad it keeps Max from eating lunch, sends his schoolwork into a nosedive and damages his relationships with his best friend as well as his own family. Then he learns a secret about Brody, the boy who has led the campaign of bullying against him, that explains why he’s done it. Max realizes he has something that might make Brody feel better — a big purple marble — and gives it to him, changing Brody’s whole attitude.

“I like happy endings, so I wanted to end it happily,” Alyssa said. “I wanted them to all be friends in the end. Max just had to learn to stand up for himself.”

It took Alyssa somewhere between five and six months to complete the story.

“She had to learn a lot about writing,” her mother said. “Like she had to learn about symbolism. She’d taken a writing camp, and that helped.”

When she was done, Alyssa titled her story “The Purple Marble” because “sometimes something so small can stop something so big.”

“People don’t realize being kind is always the solution,” she said.

She also gave it a subtitle based on her own experience of being bullied and how she ended it.

“That’s why the book is called ‘Break the Circle,’” she explained. “You just have to be the one to stop it.”

The Story Continues

That might have been the end of Alyssa’s story, but when she was 11 years old, best-selling author Sheri Fink came to her fifth-grade class and gave a Powerpoint presentation about writing.

“Her first book was also about bullying, so I sent (my story) to her,” Alyssa said.

Her mom remembers, “(Sheri) called me and said, ‘You need to publish this book.’”

With editing help from Lori Polydoros and illustrations by Vicki Frazier, the book was published with sections at the end about what the characters learned and questions to spark discussions in a classroom or at home. It’s now in more than 200 schools across the United States and it’s been incorporated into the anti-bullying curriculum in many classrooms.

“A lot of teachers have gotten back to us about how it’s opened a discussion about bullying,” Alyssa said. “(One teacher) told me my book changed a lot in her classroom. She said it needs to be in every school in the U.S.”

She even heard from a teacher in England. Alyssa now visits classrooms to talk with students who have read her book and to share their experiences.

“The first thing I ask is, ‘How many here have been bullied,” she said. “About 90 percent of the people raise their hands. I tell them to keep them up and look around. I tell them, ‘I want you to see you’re not alone.’”

The book also led to Alyssa creating a nonprofit charity called Strength Behind Stars, which has a nine-member board of girls, including her sister, Olivia, who are Ambassadors for Kindness. They’ve launched Jeans for Teens to provide denims to youths who can’t afford them and Just a Little Cloth to provide dresses for needy girls.

A Musical Hit

The story might have ended there, but now “The Purple Marble” has been turned into a musical for PCPA’s Outreach program by Leo Cortez.

“Tiffany Antoci called on a Monday,” Cortez said. “They had attended ‘Shrek’ over the weekend, and she wondered if I’d produce her daughter’s book into a play. I said, ‘Get me a copy of the book and I’ll let you know.’”

Cortez said he wasn’t optimistic, since Alyssa had written it when she was only 8.

“I was really impressed,” Cortez said. “I was absolutely surprised at how well it was written. The lead character is surrounded by other characters that had meaning and purpose in the boy’s life. … It enlightened me. When I found it was a true story, I read it again.”

Cortez met with Alyssa and Tiffany and told them it had the potential to be a musical.

“It has comedy, pathos,” he said. “It’s lyrical. It even has a montage.”

But he also saw it as an important piece from a social standpoint.

“The idea of bullying is such a hot topic right now,” he said. “A lot of people have different views of it. But I can’t find anybody out there with the idea of how to solve the problem by acknowledging that both (the bully and the victim) are being bullied. That they actually could be friends.”

Cortez said he constructed and deconstructed the play over about two years until he finally had a workable piece. It was produced this year as part of the Outreach program at elementary schools in both Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties and was well received. After each performance, the PCPA interns who make up the cast meet with audience members to talk about the play. Sometimes, the children are in tears, but mostly they are in awe that someone has told their story.

“Every audience, someone has said, ‘Wow, that was really moving. That was not what I expected,’” Cortez said. “We played this for a junior high school. Normally, a children’s play would never fly at a junior high school. You’d get booed out. But this audience was engaged with the story and the actors.

“This is for anybody who’s had this experience. It means something.”

Alyssa seems a little surprised by the success of her story.

“I never thought that it would be a play or in more than 200 schools all over the U.S.,” she said.

Tiffany doesn’t think Alyssa completely grasps the chord she’s struck in so many young minds.

“I don’t think she really understands the impact the book has on kids,” she said.

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The Valley Foundation’s mission is to improve the lives of people in the Santa Ynez Valley and Los Alamos by investing in programs that feed the poor, promote health, nurture seniors, challenge youth and inspire the community to make a difference.

The foundation and newspaper created the youth award in 2012 as an extension of the Man and Woman of the Year program established in 1995. The youth award honors student in grades nine through 12 for outstanding services to others.

In addition to recognition plaques, each youth honoree will receive a $1,000 scholarship to be used for postsecondary education.

Here’s a look at this year’s youth standouts: