I was bullied my whole life because of my inappropriate name, but I refused to change it

A WOMAN who was bullied all her life for her unusual name but refused to change it has revealed she has now become a doctor.

Dr. Marijuana Pepsi Vandyck defied bullies by taking pride in the name she was given.

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The 46-year-old has used her experience to research black names and how they affect children’s education in the US.

She told the BBC, recalling what her mother told her when she first asked why she had an unusual name: “My mother told me your name will take you all over the world.

“Then I thought, ‘Come on,’ but I know my mom, she’s smart and a genius and I trusted that she really believed that.”

When she was in elementary school, Dr. Marijuana said she was constantly bullied by both her parents and teachers.

“Marijuana is unusual and when you add Pepsi to that, the reactions just keep coming.”

She said her teachers asked her to be called Mary, which was fine until she won a spelling contest at school.

When her mother saw that the name on it was Mary Jackson, she became very angry.

“She told them never to call me Mary again and then she went to the school and demanded they change it. She didn’t play.”

By the time she reached high school, the bullying became worse, Dr. Marijuana said.

“It gave them ammunition, and I had to endure so much. One day I decided that that’s it, I’m not going to take it anymore.”

With the help and support of her family, Dr. Marijuana overcame her problems and changed her attitude towards her name.

She channeled her feelings into education and now holds a doctorate in higher education leadership from Cardinal Stritch University in Wisconsin, after her dissertation was titled “Black Names in White Classrooms—Teacher Behaviors and Student Perceptions.”

Dr. Marijuana said she never really thought about how other people’s names would affect her education until a colleague complained during her first semester as a teacher after seeing a list of the students she would be teaching.

Banned names in the UK

In the UK there is no law restricting names, but names that contain obscenities, numbers, misleading titles or are impossible to pronounce are likely to be rejected when registering a child.

• Hitler
• Monkey
• Cyanide
• Mars-
• Akuma
• Chow-Tow
• villain

She said the teacher complained that she could tell from the names on the list that she would be teaching “black children.”

“I thought this was ridiculous, I’m going to write about this,” she said.

Dr. Marijuana now lives in Illinois with her husband and son, where she works on a program to help college students.

“We are human, when we first hear a name we form opinions and judgments. It is the next “Something someone does that makes a difference,” she said.

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