The story garnered national attention, but now Amber's family says she doesn't have any more bullies to deal with. Still, the battle to rise above it was hard.
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"They would pick on my appearance and I knew how I looked, so I just made me feel worse," Amber Suffern, age 11, said. "And they would pick on my intelligence."
"At first the bullying did get worse, but there were a lot of supporters who helped out," Ryan said.
Amber and Ryan had to switch schools and were even home schooled for a time to get away from the bullying.
Their mom said Amber has high-functioning autism and an anxiety disorder. The bullying made it harder to get through to her.
"Every time I was able to work with her to get her out of her shell that she is constantly in, she was just pulled in it more," Amber's mother, Karen Suffern said.
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Karen faced bullying herself and the whole experience has been so hurtful she wrote a book about it.
Karen said with the school change and the support of family, Amber has been able to overcome the bullying and has even made a new friends.
Now Amber wants other bullying victims to speak up.
"Don't go through the same thing I did, because I didn't stop it," Amber said.
"Words do hurt, they really do, because even with physical violence eventually bruises they heal, broken bones heal, but words you know they do a lot of damage," Karen said.
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