Emily Osment Voted U.G.L.Y. Celebrity Of 2011 In Seventh Annual Program

Online, January 3, 2012 (Newswire.com) - Emily Osment as been voted the U.G.L.Y. celebrity of 2011 in the seventh annual Celebrity of the Year Award. This most prestigious honor was bestowed upon Osment as voted by teens throughout North American.

While voters were impressed with Osment's outstanding performance in the ABC Family TV movie, Cyberbully, they were blown away by her continued advocacy for bullying awareness and prevention.

"She has always been a positive role model for teens, and continues to do that with her positive outlooks and when she makes people realize that bullying is everywhere and that it's not okay," explained teen voter Alyx V. "I admire Emily and her strength, and that even though she's admitted to never really being bullied before, she can still know that it's something that hurts people and that people need to know they don't have to think they're alone in their pain. It's always easy for those of us who have suffered a bully's wrath to understand what teens are going through and to want to help them, and the same goes for families of those who have been bullied ... but sometimes I think that a truly great person is someone who hasn't suffered like that, and yet still, out of their own goodness, wants to help those who have."

New York teen singer/songwriter Ari Zizzo chose Emily, ".....because she's a true inspiration. I personally think she has helped a lot of people through tough times, and has brought awareness to us about how horrible bullying is, where it can unfortunately lead to, and how to prevent it from happening."

Bullying prevention is the key mission of Hey U.G.L.Y. - Unique Gifted Lovable You (HU), the international nonprofit organization that sponsors the annual award through their media literacy program.

"In honor of Emily's movie and the recent increase of teen suicides, we started CyberbulliedUnite.org to empower the 43% of teens who are being cyberbullied to know they are not alone," announced Betty Hoeffner, HU co-founder and president.

HU is dedicated to empowering youth with self-esteem- and empathy-building programs to empower them to be part of the solution to bullying. One of the areas that contribute to low self-esteem in teens is our celebrity-obsessed society which is why HU created the U.G.L.Y. Celebrity of the Year Award. It helps teens understand and embrace that it's what you do instead of what you look like that matters the most. Celebrities are nominated as part of Hey U.G.L.Y.'s media literacy program. In the program teachers hold open discussions with their students about how we are all bombarded with news and gossip about celebrities. They delve into what characteristics make a good role model. Students then create a list of three celebrities that they think are good role models and three which they believe are not. After each group explains their selections to their classmates, the teacher sends the nominee selections to Hey U.G.L.Y. who tallies the results.

Tied for second place were Demi Lovato and Anne Hathaway.