Gotta agree on confronting bullies when they get physical. Turning the other cheek can often mark you as a target for continued bullying. Either way, you're gonna get hurt, so might as well try to put an end to it.

I feel like everyone has to sorta take that road in childhood where they have to realize "Oh, I'm not the best looking I can be." Hygiene in my early teens was a sore point for me - I didn't realize that I actively smelled and needed deodorant, and I lived in the desert! Sweat and a lack of deodorant makes a pretty gnarly combination, I will say.