Phoebe and Her Unicorn by Dana Simpson for March 11, 2014

Sorry Phoebe, the world does not revolve around you.. It is in orbit around your unicorn.

There are times that I wish I could stop thinking, and just live.Meanness aside, Dakota may be onto something… : /

I think Dakota is jealous. She needs a unicorn too.

Dakota is so careless!

I’m absolutely with Phoebe in the last panel — simply dumbfounded at what people DON’T think about.

Sorry, one more thing. Google had this “get rid of bossy” thing to encourage leadership for girls. Bossy and leading are not the same thing. Phoebe is a fabulous example here of not being cowed by others. She takes a snarky little girl to task for being consistently rude to her and is actually able to have a conversation with her. Brava, Phoebe. And thank you, Dana!

To dwell on the misery you inflict on others is to gain the first taste of empathy. A bitter herb of conscious understanding leading to remorse and perspective.

What kid wants that?!

To be fair, it’s absolutely natural to not like (perhaps even hate) other people without being able to articulate why—some of that is instinct. But not examining that dislike is foolish… childish, even. And absolutely natural for little kids =/

DAK is top of the social heap. Angst is for the bottom level. It’s an obsessive digging for how everything effects yourself, and a more selfish position than the ‘I don’t care’ from the top..Sorry to see PHE’s eyes are bugging out like a bottom dweller today. A top would have said ‘Stop being Mean!’ And if they got an ‘I don’t care.’’ response one grade school fist would have been planted right onto the upturned nose.

The worst selfishness and normal io is for DAK to form a pack of girls to heckle and make a friendless bottom dweller miserable. Unlikely for PHE, she’s got a unicorn friend.

“I do not like thee, Doctor Fell,The reason why—I cannot tell;But this I know, and know full well,I do not like thee, Doctor Fell.”

This story arc touches a nerve for me too, and I’ve been in Phoebe’s shoes. I love her responses to Dakota, even in the presence of her group. Go Phoebe!

Shades of Millie and Felicia…

Just wait until they have to write a paper together.

Oh, the bullies know why they’re mean. They get a kick out of human suffering, and if there’s an audience to the abuse they dish out, that’s even better, because the schoolkids will laugh at the victim (most of the time). It is a myth that bullies have low self-esteem. Most of them are narcissists.

dakota left her pants hanging from a wooley blue curl

“It’s like I have a life.” said the self-entitled brat, boogerishly, as she looked at her phone unironically.