'Ugliest girls' poll: Student's response to cyberbullying goes viral

A Newfoundland and Labrador highschool student's response to online bullying is winning praise from friends and family, who are proud of her bravery in the face of amean-spirited post.

Lynelle Cantwellwas in math class Monday in Holy Trinity High in Torbay when she learnedsheand other studentshad been ranked in an anonymous online "straw poll" called "Ugliest girls at hth," which was posted on the social media site ask.fm.

• Positive reaction to Torbay teen's post triumphs hateful 'ugliest girls' poll

The site allowspeople to make anonymous postsandcomments.

"It outraged me ...all of these girls are hurt because of this one person who has no heart or sympathy for anything," she told CBC Newson Wednesday.

"I wanted to be the bigger person, and instead of fighting fire with fire,I decided to fight it a different way and make something that was really negative into something really positive."

After thinking about the hurtful poll for the rest of the day, Cantwelldecided to respond on FacebookTuesdaywith her own message.

"To the person that made the "Ugliest girls in grade 12 at hth"ask.fmstraw poll. I'm sorry that your life is so miserable that you have to try to bring others down," she wrote.

"I know i don't have the perfect smile or the perfect face. But i'm sorry for you. Not myself."

Cantwell'sresponsehas since been shared almost 2,000times by Wednesday afternoon, and nearly 200people have commented to show their support.

She said she hasbeen overwhelmed with the response, from people who are close to her and many others she doesn't evenknow.

Cantwell said she's been bombarded with texts, calls and messagesever since the post, and one person even went so far as to sendher flowers.

"I'm getting so many messages I can't answer all ofthem," she said.

"Everyone is coming up to me and saying, 'Oh my gosh,your Facebook status, it's so beautifully written and doing such a good job and I'm so proudof you,'" she said.

"Everything is just so positive."