Stella O'Malley — Bully-Proof Kids
Bully-Proof Kids: Practical Tools to Help Your Child to Grow Up Confident, Assertive and Strong is a book by Irish psychotherapist Stella O'Malley. It was published in 2017 by Gill Books in Dublin. It is her second book, following Cotton Wool Kids in 2015.
The main article on this subject is Stella O'Malley.
What it is about
The book is about bullying. O'Malley draws on her experience treating both bullies and children who are bullied. She gives parents practical tools to help children and teenagers stand up to bullies and dominant peers. She also describes how a family can respond when bullying is already taking place: talking to the school, contacting the bully's parents and addressing cyberbullying. The book is not about gender or gender dysphoria.
The structure of the book
According to the description on the author's website, the book offers concrete strategies to help children and teenagers deal confidently with bullying and dominant personalities. O'Malley examines the factors that perpetuate bullying: the atmosphere at school, the personalities of the children involved and the role of bystanders. The aim is to give families the tools to break a harmful pattern.
The author
Stella O'Malley was born in Dublin and lives with her family in Birr, in the Irish county of Offaly. She is also known in Ireland for her television work, including as the regular psychotherapist on the RTÉ programme Raised by the Village. She has said that as a child she identified as a boy for many years and began to feel at home as a woman at around the age of sixteen. She cites this experience as the background to her later interest in gender dysphoria.
Later work
After this book, she published Fragile (2019), about anxiety and stress, and What Your Teen Is Trying to Tell You (2023), about dealing with teenagers. In 2023, she co-wrote When Kids Say They're Trans with Sasha Ayad and Lisa Marchiano, a guide for parents. The documentary for Channel 4 is called Trans Kids: It's Time to Talk and was broadcast in November 2018. The podcast began in December 2020, and Genspect was founded in June 2021. O'Malley is also a clinical adviser to SEGM. Her organisation's book list is available in this archive at genspect.org/resources/books; SEGM publications can be found in the SEGM Digest.
Why it is included in this archive
O'Malley later became known for her work on gender dysphoria among young people. She made a documentary for Channel 4 in 2018, founded the organisation Genspect and hosts the podcast Gender: A Wider Lens. In it, she advocates gender-exploratory therapy, an approach criticised by advocates of affirmative care. This book shows the youth-support background from which she participates in that debate.