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Demi Lovato fronts bullying campaign

Sep 20, 2012, 23:01 GMT

Demi Lovato

Demi Lovato has become the face of a new bullying campaign.

The 'X Factor' judge - who was bullied when she was at school - is the new ambassador for Secret's Mean Stinks campaign, which encourages girls to 'gang up for good' to end bullying in schools.

She said: 'I heard about the programme last year, and thought it was such a great opportunity. They're really trying to put an end to bullying.'

The programme asks girls to pledge to have a 'Drama Free School Year' by making a pinky swear, symbolised by wearing blue nail polish on their pinky fingers and Demi added: 'I'll definitely be wearing [the nail polish] starting soon. It's a conversation starter: 'Hey, why is your pinky blue?' 'This is a pinky promise that I'm not going to bully people, that me and my friends are ganging up for good.' '

Demi, 20, also spoke of the tough time she had at school because she was targeted by bullies.

The singer - who spent three months in rehab for her eating disorder and self-harming at the end of 2010 - told PEOPLE: 'I had a really tough time when I was in middle school. People would write 'hate petitions' [about me] and send them around to be signed. They'd have CD-bashing parties of my demos. They'd come to my house, stand across the street and yell things. It was a very emotional time for me, and all I wanted to do was get away.'