If you have read my book review, you know there is a new movie coming out called Midnight Sun. In it, the actress Bella Thorne plays a girl with XP (which I have).

Someone made this comment on Twitter about the movie trailer:

“Well people with diseases deserve to die, it’s natural selection. And that XP s*** sounds like your normalising vampirism which is not a joke.”

I’m not usually a person who is judgmental, but I wanted to blog about it because other people might be hurt, offended, or sensitive about comments like this. I don’t know if it’s common for people to make fun of people with disabilities, but this is one form of cyberbullying. Maybe this person is just voicing an opinion or trying to be funny – but it isn’t funny. And, every person deserves to have a full life.

Here’s what I think when I read the part about XP. I think this comment is stereotyping people. Just because someone can’t go out in the sun, doesn’t make them a vampire. We don’t sparkle like Edward Cullen. We don’t have fangs. We don’t drink blood. And we are definitely human.

Humans have feelings, and comments like these can hurt – a little. I try to ignore them mostly. I think comments like this tell me more about the person that wrote them than the tell me about myself. This comment says the writer doesn’t really want to get to know people who are different. That’s sort of sad.

Like I said in my book review, people may surprise you if you get to know them better. This person might change their point of view if they really got to know someone with disease or disability. So my advice is to give people a chance. It might change your perspective.

But please think before you tweet because your words might cause damage.