“Ever since probably seventh grade, or sixth grade, probably through those years, I started looking around my room or the things I was wearing, cause I didn’t really buy my own clothes at the time, and I just knew that I didn’t feel comfortable in what I was wearing. I didn’t feel good about myself, and it wasn’t just because like ‘puberty or whatever,’ no, no, I wasn’t feeling good about myself because the things I was wearing, I wasn’t interested in it. So around probably ninth grade, when I started buying my own clothes, and it was like, black, and it was chains and stuff like that, I felt so confident in myself and I just felt so happy with myself, so that’s when I realized it wasn’t really a phase, because if it was a phase, I would still kind of feel comfortable with wearing the stereotypical ‘normal’ clothes. I feel like doing things that aren’t society’s perspective of normal or trendy makes it look like you don’t agree with society’s terms and rules and stuff like that. You do what you wanna do. When I go out, people look at me like I’m weird, and it’s like, I’m just doing what I’m doing. Before, I used to care a lot, and I think that was probably before quarantine. My family would always tell me, ‘This is weird, when are you gonna get out of this, this looks ugly, why are you trying to draw attention?’ And afterwards, I just was like: these people, they’re gonna die eventually. They’re gonna die sooner than me- most likely. When they’re gone, will their ideas still matter to me and stuff? It’s like, I don’t judge them for their decisions they have made in their life, so I don’t know what gives them the right to judge me for the decisions I make in my life. And it has just gotten to a point where I’m like: I only live this life once- I think- so why would I try and waste my life trying to impress other people’s ideas and opinions of what should be the normal if I’m not happy doing that myself? Why would I want to live a sad life in order to impress others, you know? Now, it’s like there’s just different styles, and people are just breaking society’s norms all the time. And that’s so important to me, because I feel like things should change. Nothing should be kept the same way for such a long time, especially when this style and these things aren’t bringing any harm to anyone. I don’t see why there’s a problem with society changing. It feels amazing. It feels like I’m not trapped in society’s norms and stuff. Of course, being outside of society’s norms and stuff, I still have to deal with the consequences of people calling me emo as an offense, or like staring at me in public- but I’m okay with it, because deep down I’m happy, and that’s what matters.”