After having — and raising! — eight young kids, it's obvious that Kate Gosselin is one tough cookie. But the reality TV mother has had to deal with her fair share of criticism from adults as well, she reveals in a new blog post on Bullyville.
"I've been bullied. A lot," she begins the post. "I was definitely bullied back then [during middle school] and the cruel comments and mean displays are memories that have left deep scars that remain with me till this day. Bullying made me feel insecure, alone, ugly, powerless, and hopeless at times. Being bullied was the most difficult part of my early teen years.
"But the bullying didn't stop there for me and with a quick sweep of the Internet, it's clear that this epidemic is alive and well like a disease with no cure!" she continued. "It's a horrible disease that haunts me and many many many others in our world!"
The 37-year-old mother goes on to explain that ever since she and then-husband Jon Gosselin opened up their home to America on their TLC show Jon and Kate Plus 8, she has been the victim of "adult bullying" on the Internet.
Critics of her and her family "flocked to the Internet to make ugly hurtful and untrue comments" about her brood, something that Gosselin said has gone on to impact her life after the show as well.
The reality show star, who competed on season 10 of Dancing With the Stars, was reportedly rejected from this past fall's All-Star season of the dancing competition show, and was publicly fired from her job at CouponCabin in October 2012.
But the negativity hasn't affected the self-proclaimed "positive" mother-of-eight, she said.
"I use my haters as my motivators," Gosselin wrote in the post. "If they say I can't do it, rest assured I WILL do it. And I won't stop until I've succeeded in achieving any given goal. With all I've been through, one thing I know about myself is that my persistence is hard to stop!"
"I think of myself as the energized bunny," she continued. "I keep going and going and going!"
