Behind the mic, taking on bullies

Corey Taylor is a 15-year-old with a confident smile and a passion for helping others cope with bullying.

She majors in childhood development at Northwest Career and Technical Academy, regularly participates in theater workshops and performs various acting jobs. Perhaps her biggest accomplishment is that she’s the host of Las Vegas’ only known teen talk show where she educates the community on bullying.

Taylor’s experience with bullies started at a very young age. They would antagonize her and other peers at school and theater, trying to crush her self-confidence.

“At first,” she said, “I would come home crying because I couldn’t understand why they were picking on me.”

After a few months, she realized the problem wasn’t going to get any better if she didn’t do anything about it.

“I talked to my mom,” she said, “and she told me to observe the bullies with their parents.”

Taylor soon realized what her mother said was true; these bullies were not happy themselves, so they looked to other people to pick on.

With this in mind, Taylor steadily rebuilt her self-esteem.

“I discovered that (bullying) is a serious problem in our society,” she said, “and that something needs to be done to stop it or it will get so much worse.”

With the support of her sisters and single mother, Taylor withdrew her life savings and started a radio talk show, deciding that was the best way to reach the audience she wanted.

“I was originally saving up for a car, but this is more important,” she said.

She spends $500 a month on the show, “Corey Taylor Talks.”

Taylor said she was offered the position as a radio talk show host after the radio producer heard her story during a guest appearance on another talk show. So during the first week of summer, when most teenagers were lounging around or spending time by the pool, she recorded her first show at Vegas All Net Radio.

The show airs from 6 to 7 p.m. every Thursday on vegasallnetradio.com. The show has been gaining momentum, building its audience and adding listeners and speakers.

Taylor now hears from people ranging from 4-year-old children to adult military personnel.

“A U.S. Marine called into the show one day and told me his entire crew listened to my show,” Corey said. “Apparently after they got rid of ‘Don’t ask, don’t tell’ policy, there was a lot of bullying happening in the armed forces.”

The Marine reported that her show made their crew quarters a better place.

Taylor welcomes the burden of others’ problems with confidence.

“I once heard from a girl that had considered committing suicide,” she said. “Helping people that went through the same things that I did really assures them there is a solution, and suicide is a permanent solution to a temporary problem.”

She plans to continue her talk show and encourage people of all ages to surround themselves with good influences. She hopes to pursue an acting career and remain a figure for people to look up to.

“So many people in the media are not good influences for children,” Taylor said, “and I want to be that difference. I want people to see me and realize it’s OK to not ‘fit in.’ ”