Dederick Woodard, motivational speaker and rap teacher, answers questions from fourth grade scholars during a press conference.

I’ve been mean to myself before. But I didn’t realize just how self-bullying, belittling and cruel I could be until my eyesight took a nose-dive last year. Suddenly I could no longer see my family’s faces or the world around me. And I hated myself for it.

It was my own struggle with the pain from my childhood—followed by my decision to write and share my story—that made me understand the life-changing power of personal narrative.