For years now, bullying has become a major issue and continues to effect many school aged kids in the region.

Miss Shenandoah Outstanding Teen, Morgan Breeden, 17, said growing up she constantly being bullied growing up, starting in kindergarten but it especially got worst when she first entered middle school.

"All of the kids from the other elementary schools, they constantly, constantly picked on me everyday and it was because I was overweight. It didn't fail to go from yelling at me loudly in class, things like you're so fat, you're so ugly, or is that a maternity top you're wearing, when's your baby due?" Breeden said.

Breeden said the bullying got so bad in ninth grade, she had to be home schooled because she just couldn't take it anymore. Six out of 10 middle schoolers say that they have bullied according to statistics. Melissa Swartz, a licensed professional counselor said that bullies will constantly put down others so they can feel better about themselves.

However, not all types of bullying can happen face-to-face. Some attacks happen via the internet where people are attacking their peers.

Miss Jefferson County Outstanding Teen Lexi Openshaw, 14, was a victim of a cyber bullying attack earlier this school year. Someone created a fake account using her name, pictures and answering questions about her that were false.

"The person was giving out a phone number and what if that person would give a phone number out to somebody and they tracked that number down and say they don't find that person. But the person had of gone to my school and been sort of close to me so if they didn't find that person, they obviously would know what I look like so what if they found me?," Openshaw said.

Openshaw said it was important that she told her parents about the account so they could help her make the cyber-bullying stop. However, according to Swartz, kids often will not tell their parents that they are being bullied but she has advice for them once they find out.

"We need to validate and say 'Oh, I am so sad that is happening,' and listen. The first you need to do is listen and hear (them) all the way out. We're not going to judge how you feel, we're not going to tell you 'I don't know how you can feel that,' we're not going to say any of that stuff. We know when we stand up, most of time, it makes a difference," Swartz said.

Statistics show that nearly of all school-aged children will be bullied. Last school year, 140 forms were completed on bullying incidents in local middle schools.

Both West Virginia and Maryland have anti-bullying laws in place.