Negativity has always reared it’s ugly head by crowing more loudly over its uplifting antonym. Even when positivity is overwhelming, all it takes is one negative incident to shout down the quiet hope that goodness brings. So when a news story breaks on TV’s about a few high school girls, our minds race towards stereotypes, and we brace ourselves for a real life version of Mean Girls. But the story that came out of Grand Prairie, Texas proved to everyone that sometimes, positive actions speak louder than negative words.

NBC News aired a report about two Grand Prairie High School girls, Naomi Martinez and Anahi Alvarez, who caught wind of a prank that a group of kids pulled on their friend Lillian. “There’s no way to describe how…good of a person she is,” Anahi said of Lillian. The kids playing the prank told Lillian that she was nominated to the homecoming court when she actually wasn’t. It was a mean prank that, had the bullies succeeded, would have been very hurtful indeed. But Naomi and Anahi weren’t going to stand for it. Naomi told the NBC reported, “We promised each other…if one of us wins, we’re giving Lillian the crown.”
And that’s exactly what they did. Anahi’s name was called, but she immediately passed the crown to Lillian. And both girls immediately knew that they did the right thing. Lillian’s response? “Best senior year ever.”
(Watch the full story here.)

Instead of conforming and participating in high school bullying, these two girls defied the stereotypes and became examples for showing the respect that everyone deserves. The catty rumors and exclusive cliques that adolescent girls are so apt to adopt during this stage of growing up can be broken by a simple act of kindness.