Minutes after a Twitter user called her "fatty," Heart Attack singer Demi Lovato could have had a heart attack. But instead of lashing back, she responded with kindness - setting an incredible example for her 21.8 million followers.

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"Dear haters, you don't have to like me cause I love you. Everyone's equal, everyone has a soul and everyone deserves to be loved" she tweeted on April 15. The post has been retweeted 39,810 times.

She continued, "Dear Lovatics, for every hater tweet - don't respond with hate but love and positivity.. Try love instead of combat," resulting in 32,352 retweets.

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Well, one of her Lovatics did just that by responding to the cyberbully with "you are beautiful" instead of going on attack.

The former Disney darling has battled through her share of personal demons - all originating with being bullied. She sat down with Robin Roberts on ABC News April 19, 2011 to share the painful effects bullying had on her life.

"I've spoken openly about being bullied throughout the past few years, but one thing that I've never been able to feel comfortable talking about was the effects that it had on my life, afterwards," she said. "I literally didn't know why they were being so mean to me. And when I would ask them why, they would just say, 'Well, you're fat."

The bullying sparked a spiral effect of self-destructive behaviors and torment.

"I developed an eating disorder, and that's kind of what I've been dealing with ever since," she said.

"I was compulsively overeating when I was eight years old," she continued. "So, I guess, for the past 10 years I've had a really unhealthy relationship with food."

Then at age 11, Lovato began self-mutilation. She cut her wrists to cope with her disturbing emotions.

"It was a way of expressing my own shame, of myself, on my own body," she told Roberts. "I was matching the inside to the outside. And there were some times where my emotions were just so built up, I didn't know what to do. The only way that I could get instant gratification was through an immediate release on myself."

Everything came to a giant head on a concert tour with the Jonas Brothers for the Disney Channel musical, Camp Rock 2 in 2010. She physically struck one of her backup dancers, Alex Welch, a friend who meant a lot to her.

"I take 100 percent, full responsibility." Lovato told Roberts. "I feel horrible. [She] was my friend."

Her family intervened immediately, Lovato quit the tour and checked into Timberline Knolls - a residential treatment center in Illinois for women struggling with addiction and eating disorders.

"For the first time in my life, I started to feel," she said.

"A picture of my little sister, on my little bulletin board, was one of the main things that kept me going," she said. "I just kept thinking, 'OK, set this example for your little sister.'"

Now, the Neon Lights singer is setting an example for a lot more girls than her sister.

"The real reason why I'm sitting down with you," she told Roberts, "is to open up the eyes of so many young girls, that it doesn't have to be this way."

On April 14th, while performing at iHeartRadio Live in Burbank, she shared her heart with the crowd:

According to The Huffington Post on Thursday, "No matter what you go through, whether it is a mental illness, being bullied at school, or cutting, having a substance abuse issue, or an eating disorder, don't be afraid to ask for help. That's what I did," she told the audience"

Lovato is no longer troubled when someone on Twitter calls her "fatty" because she's learned to love herself. And as The Beatles said, all you really need is love.

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Demi Lovato