Blessings, Bliss, and Bailey: Sweet Girl

Anyone who has a daughter has surely looked at her at some point and had the same hope - that she stay sweet.
As I watch Bailey play, laugh, swim, crawl, chatter, bounce, swing, eat, and sleep - I see her sweetness. I fear the day that she encounters her first mean girl. They are everywhere.
I remember being so defensive in my own youth, always on guard, protecting my feelings. I used tough tactics, I don't care attitudes, and even a little retaliation. The things our mothers don't tell us... I wish I had known then what I know now. I remember being so hurt by girls in middle and high school. Being left out of events and being lied to. How can I save Bailey from feeling that sadness? She will surely have enemies. Girls are cruel! They will hate her for being beautiful, yet exclude her if she's not. They will resent her if she is talented, but tease her if she is not. How do we teach our daughters to be confident, to be sweet, to be a peacemaker in the presence of mean girls, but most of all, how to not become one themselves?
Wouldn't it be wonderful if girls could simply renounce their bad habits and decide to respond to conflict in a gracious and constructive way? But as I have learned, it is not that easy. In order to break free from the pattern they have fallen into, mean girls need to understand why they react to conflict the way they do. While I cannot change the minds of those who hurt others, arming Bailey with the knowledge of why they do it seems like a plan. One passage that I can recall from James 4:1-3 gives the key to this...

"What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don't they come from your desires that battle within you? You want something but don't get it. You kill and covet, but you cannot have what you want. You quarrel and fight. You do not have, because you do not ask God. When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures."

The minds of young girls are so small. They look and look to find something in you, a weakness, and they take that weakness and spread it around, as if it is all that exists of you. They paint over your all of your strengths with one flaw. They tear you down and you begin to believe that they are right.
Then you grow up.
I didn't find my true friends until I got out of college. I also didn't stop caring what people thought of me until then either. Likewise, I ditched my attitude when I left college, moved to a new city, and never looked back. That attitude was the best thing I ever lost.
For years it had been brewing in me as a defense mechanism against jealous girls - It was taking over my body, and my soul. My mom used to look at me and ask, "Why are you so angry?" Then I didn't know, but now I do.
So... What have I learned? What can I teach Bailey? How can I prevent her from learning the hard way like I did?
I don't want to just tell her to be "strong" and " independent"... I want her to understand rejection. Understand hate. Understand jealousy. When you know your enemy, you are a better warrior against them.
She needs to know that everyone wont like her. Not every girl will want to play with her. Someone will hate her for being beautiful. Others will hate her many talents. Some will hate her for reasons she will never even know. I want her to be able to look at them, and know that it is okay. I am still searching for the best way to teach Bailey this important lesson, but for now my only words...
Bailey, everyone will not like you, and many may hurt you, but I will always love you, and you must always stay my sweet girl :)