Student takes on bullies behind 'ugliest girl in high school' poll

Grade 12 student Lynelle Cantwell of Torbay, N.L., appears on CTV News Channel on Dec. 3, 2015.

A Newfoundland teen is winning a lot of support online for taking on a group of anonymous bullies who ranked her in an "ugliest girl in high school" poll.

Grade 12 student Lynelle Cantwell took on her anonymous attackers in a Facebook post, after she discovered their online "straw poll" posted on ask.FM. Cantwell told the bullies to "get a life," and refused to take their anonymous harassment quietly.

"I know that I'm not the prettiest thing to look at," she wrote in her Facebook post. "But I'm funny, nice, down to earth, not judgmental, accepting, helpful, and I'm super easy to talk to. That's the same for every other girl on that list that you all put down."

She also addressed the 12 who voted for her in the poll, saying, "I'm sorry that you don't get to know me as a person."

The Torbay, N.L., teen's post has attracted attention online, with more than 2,500 shares since Monday morning.

"I've gotten hundreds of messages," Cantwell told CTV News Channel on Thursday.

She added that the poll "hurt a lot," but since then, she's received a lot of positive feedback for taking on the anonymous people who put her down.

“I was a little bit hurt, I’m not going to lie,” Cantwell told NTV. “It kind of crushed me on the inside a little bit.”

She said she told herself to “suck it up” because there were other girls on the ask.FM list who were “feeling the same way.”

“I’ve got to set an example,” she said, adding that people shouldn’t judge others by their looks.

After receiving so many messages of support, Cantwell said her confidence is “sky high” right now.

Her mother, Brenda Cantwell, told the Canadian Press that she's extremely proud of her daughter. "She's taken an ugly situation and turned it into something beautiful," she said.

NTV reports that the school is offering extra counselling to students who need it and that the Royal Newfoundland Constabulary is investigating.

But Cantwell said she doesn’t want the person who created the poll to be punished – she just wants an apology.

With files from the Canadian Press