Brazil teacher changes hairstyle to support bullied girl

Ms Ferreira said the girl was sad after being told her hair was ugly

A Brazilian teacher has come up with a unique way to help a schoolgirl who was being bullied because of her hair.

Ana Barbara Ferreira, from Sao Paulo, said her student was "sad" after being ridiculed by a boy, who had said her hair was "ugly".

"At that moment, the only thing I could tell her was that she was wonderful and shouldn't care about what he was saying," she wrote in a Facebook post that went viral.

A bigger show of support came in the following day, when she went to work wearing the same hairstyle as her pupil, much to the girl's surprise.

"When she saw me, she came running to hug me and say that I was beautiful," Ms Ferreira said.

"I told her: 'Today I'm beautiful like you!'"

You might also like

• Are Washington girls really going missing?

• All-male White House health bill photo sparks anger

• Why I get mistaken for being drunk

She posted a picture on Facebook of her with the pupil - both smiling and with similar hairstyles.

The teacher has been widely praised on social media. Her post has been liked by more than 142,000 people and shared 30,000 times.

Ms Ferreira said: "Yesterday, my student told me there was a boy saying that her hair was ugly. She was very sad. At that moment, the only thing I could tell her was that she was wonderful and shouldn't care about what he was saying.

"Today, I woke up and remembered what happened and decided to wear the same hairstyle she used to wear. When she saw me, she came running to hug me and say that I was beautiful, and I told her: 'Today I'm beautiful like you!'."

For more information about bullying and how to seek advice and support in the UK, visit BBC Advice. If you are in Brazil, you can find similar information at Instituto Saude e Sustentabilidade.