How to not let what other people think affect you?

My high school years have been the worst. I was hanging out with a group of girls, all having opinions of you and how you should behave. So of course they would express their opinions everyday and honestly it became very disturbing to know that you would go to school and be judged and having them wanted to change you. I’m sure that’s a feeling most of you can relate to.

How to make sure it doesn’t affect you? I had a lot of trouble with that growing up. I used to think of myself as a sponge because I would take everything in just to, I don’t know, please them. It’s when I learn how to step up for myself that things shifted.

I used to have very nappy hair when younger. To manage her 4 daughter’s natural’s hair, my mom would just relaxed them. But the problem with relaxing your hair is when they start growing up they grow up natural, and curly. That caused a lot of trouble because it’s hard to hide those roots. So what I would do was wear a hair piece to just hide everything, except that most of my friends or classmates were black and they knew I had a hair piece on my head. They would always tease me about that. One day in the hallway, we were all walking to the next classroom when one of my friends screamed in front of everybody “Lountanding and her hairpiece”. I was really embarrassed and shocked so I responded, even louder “my hairpiece and I fuck you”. She then babbled stuffs trying to defend herself but people ruled out for me and laughed, called me bad ass and everything. After that day, that one girl stopped messing with me. We stayed good classmates, she would still express her opinions of me but never in an aggressive way.

So I just suggest that you stay true to yourself and when something really bothers you, just say it. You don’t have to be as bold as me but it is important not to stay in silence because at the end of the day it would affect only you and your life, nobody else’s.

God gave us a mouth, use it.