Movie hopes to blunt stereotypes about West Virginia

Tijah Bumgarner is making a movie, “Meadow Bridge,” about an awkward 14-year-old girl who's made fun of at school that she hopes will dispel or at least dilute some of the stereotyping bad-mouthing of West Virginians.

Explains Tijah: What I’m pointing out in the film is that “Hey, kids that grow up here, we go through the same things as everywhere else.

“Sure, we may think we're a little different, but really, we all kind of go through these things. Y'know, we all have a crush, we all have a first kiss. I'm hoping that people can relate to that."

Meadow Bridge is in Raleigh County, just like Beckley, but was known as Beelick Knob when it was a coal town.

A 2014 Washington Post article didn’t help Tijah’s cause. It listed West Virginia last in a well-being index based on such things as financial security, access to food, shelter and health care.

West Virginia has the second-worst per capita income in America at $21,232, the highest obesity rate, the highest percentage of working-age people on disability benefits, and is near the top in diabetes and heart disease.

Those, unfortuntely, are facts, not stereotypes.

To read the entire article on Tijah, click on http://www.upworthy.com/she-never-heard-people-bad-mouth-her-home-state-until-she-left-now-shes-making-a-film-in-response