Treat Harry Styles with Kindness

Earlier this month, news broke of Harry Styles going to court to testify against a Spanish paparazzi that had been stalking him outside his home in London.

I told myself that I wouldn’t read the court transcripts when they were released. I didn’t want to hear it. I knew it was bad. I didn’t need to read it for myself. However, when it was released, I couldn’t escape. It was everywhere. All over my social media, plastered on text messages from my friends; everywhere.

Suddenly, I made more heartbreaking realizations about Harry’s personal life than I cared to know. I didn’t need to know that Harry has a personal night guard to protect him at night, but I do now. I didn’t need to know that Harry locks his bedroom door before he goes to sleep each night, but I do now. I didn’t need to know about the panic alarm, the jogging incident, or how Harry felt unsafe in his own home, but I do. I know those things now. It has become a painful reality to me that Harry is nothing more than an average, normal human being living in extraordinary circumstances. He doesn’t wear special armor to shield him from the hurt. He faces it every day, and sometimes, he loses the battle.

It’s hard for me to imagine a man like Harry being in so much emotional pain. It’s even harder to not be able to take that pain away. I think that’s the hardest thing about being a fan. They can take away our pain, but we can’t take away theirs. We make these people, these larger-than-life celebrities, our entire world, but we don’t have the power to take away all the hurtful and painful things from them.

Harry has always tagged everything he’s ever done with “treat people with kindness.” It’s his signature. It’s the message he’s tried to put forth into the world. It’s the kind of person he’s inspired others to be. It’s him. The “treat people with kindness” logo? He embodies it. He breathes it everyday. You’ll never see Harry on a bad day because he doesn’t let that side of him out. His whole life has been about helping and enriching other people’s lives. He doesn’t know how to put himself first; he’s never done it before.

I’ve always said that Harry is the kind of person who deserves the universe, but would give it to someone else before he took it for himself. I truly don’t think selfless is a strong enough attribute to give him.

I’ve never thought about it much before this court case, but I find myself thinking about it a lot now. For someone who preaches kindness as much as Harry does, he doesn’t receive nearly as much as he deserves. Harry helps multiple fans through their panic attacks, and the media calls him a womanizer. Harry donates 1.2 million dollars from his first live solo tour, and the media labels him as nothing more than a bad boy rocker. Harry treats people with kindness every moment of every day, but he is treated as less than such at every opportunity. I know it’s easy for me to say since I’m a massive supporter of his, but Harry isn’t a typical celebrity. He’s our safe place. He’s a gentle place for us to fall. He’s home for a lot of us, and it hurts to see him treated so poorly.

I always tend to say this, but we’re more than just fans. We’re family. We’ll do anything to support him and one another. We don’t take things like this lightly in the least. As fans of Harry, we often times find ourselves struggling with it, but we always try to treat people with kindness at every chance we get, even the ones who don’t deserve it. It’s time we do the same thing for Harry.

I implore and I beg every single person who’s reading this today: Treat Harry Styles with kindness. He doesn’t know it yet, but he deserves it.