Zora White is like any other girl her age. She loves art. “I used to draw in private,” she said. “I would bring my sketchbook to school, but that was really rare.” Like many others, she was picked on at school. The 12-year-old from Île-Perrot explains, “one of the primary sources I got bullied on was my hair.” What makes Zora unique is that she drew from that experience to write “Zora vs. the Mean Girl,” a book that deals with bullying. “The story is really about standing up for yourself and finding your allies.” Zora’s story is all too common. According to a 2025 study by non-profit Children First Canada, 71 per cent of youth aged 12 to 17 experience bullying. Her father, Anwar White, says it’s a tough reality for parents: “You can do what you can, but you can’t control everything for your child.” Guiding her through it all, the pair worked together on their passion project every morning. It started as a comic, but Zora admits, “it was taking a little bit long, so we decided to write a book instead.” A hands-on father, Anwar explains, “one of the things that we try to instill in our kids is take your experiences and let them grow you, let them develop you into the leader that you’re supposed to be.” While supportive of his daughter, he says schools need to take more action. “I would really love for schools to be much more vocal about their stance on bullying, and have more experts come and talk about not just that the kids shouldn’t do it, but what the actual effects are,” he says. Zora now leads an art seminar at her school and hopes to show others the power of a creative outlet. The author says, “If they would use that emotion and put it on paper… really have your emotions shine through on paper. Because I think it’s important to talk about your emotions.” Mostly, she wants others to know they’re not alone: “if someone is getting bullied and they read my book, hopefully they’ll know that they can get through it just as well as I did.”
