Madonna was a "weirdo" at school

The `Celebration` singer spoke out against bullying on 09.10.11, when she appeared on `The Ellen DeGeneres Show` on US TV.

She told the host how she could sympathise with young people who feel alone, saying: "I can totally relate to the idea of feeling isolated and alienated. I was incredibly lonely as a child, as a teenager. I have to say I never felt like I fit in, in school. I wasn`t a jock. I wasn`t an intellectual. There was no group that I felt a part of. I just felt like a weirdo."

The singer, 52, added she still feels "different", but praised the gay community where she grew up in New York for their support. She then went on to voice her concern over a present spate of teen suicides in the US.

She added: "I`m incredibly disturbed and saddened by the overwhelming number of teen suicides that have been reported lately because of bullying.

"Teenagers committing suicide is extremely disturbing, but to hear that teenagers are taking their lives because they are being bullied in schools and dormitories is kind of unfathomable."

Madonna also said she makes an effort to educate her children - Lourdes, 13, Rocco, ten, and adopted David Banda, five, and Mercy James, four - on their social responsibilities and not judging others.

She said: "We talk a lot about the importance of not judging people who are different - not judging people who don`t fit into our expected view of what`s cool and what isn`t.

"The concept that we are torturing teenagers because they are gay - it`s unfathomable. It`s like lynching black people or Hitler exterminating Jews. Sorry if I`m going on a rampage right now, but this is America. The land of the free and the home of the brave."

sections: Celebrities