This is true as hell. I was bullied as a kid and I turned into a bit of a bully myself. Figured I'd throw somebody down under me so that I wasn't the lowest rung on the ladder. Kid logic can be cruel as hell. Luckily I grew out of that garbage when I left Middle School. It's definitely a positive attention thing. When I grew out of that phase I started to be more confident about embracing what I liked to do while stuck at school that wasn't schoolwork: drawing things in my notebooks. People took notice and would tell me how much they liked what I was doing and it gave me a lot of confidence in myself. I could still "be myself" and not the fake bully me that I had invented as a suit of armor.