FKA Twigs stood up to cyber bullies to encourage fans to do the same

British singer/songwriter Fka Twigs felt compelled to publicly respond to the nasty messages she received online for dating actor Robert Pattinson, because she wanted to show fans no one should have to put up with cyber bullying.

The Video Girl star, real name Tahliah Barnett, was inundated with rude and racist tweets and posts on social networking sites last summer (14), when jealous Twilight fans, who were still holding out hope for Pattinson to reunite with his movie co-star and ex-girlfriend, Kristen Stewart, took aim at her looks and her Jamaican background after the couple's relationship became public.

She fired back at the hate mail by tweeting, "I am genuinely shocked and disgusted at the amount of racism that has been infecting my account the past week. Racism is unacceptable in the real world and it's unacceptable online."

FKA Twigs has now opened up about why she decided to take such a public stance, revealing she wanted to set a good example for fans.

She tells BBC Radio One, "I didn't want them to see me being bullied and not stand up for myself because ultimately, I'm 10 times stronger than somebody hiding behind a weird name on Twitter.

"I wanted to show that I can stand up for myself so then hopefully another person will see that and want to stand up for themselves."

However, FKA Twigs claims that despite her tough talking, the hurtful messages really got her down as she became obsessed with reading every single comment.

She continues, "I remember at the height when things were really bad for me. I remember lying in bed at three o'clock in the morning and it's embarrassing, but I was just reading through everything, reading every single comment.

"I just couldn't believe the world was like that. I guess I'm quite naive for someone who's come through the Internet, I don't engage with it that much. I just couldn't believe people think like that or say things like that. It was morbidly fascinating."