My mother decided I needed to cut my hair and get a perm when I entered seventh grade. Although her intentions were for me to look like the other girls, I did not. I had absolutely no clue what to do with the curly do. Unlovable . . . Ugly . . . Defective. That’s how […]
I never seemed to know when it was school picture day. My hair was never done and I had to borrow a friend’s jacket to cover up the scrubs I was wearing (scrubs? to school? don’t ask). I was a disheveled, awkward, disorganized, weird, clumsy, misfit kid and I hated myself for it. The thing […]
I was SO proud of my purple Saturn planet shirt! (you can’t really tell they are Saturns in this photo here.) I was a socially awkward, weird, nerd girl who was poor and from a recently divorced home. I felt bad and shy for a while- but ultimately decided to retreat into my art and […]
My awkward years were from fourth grade until my sophomore year in high school. I never actually felt awkward/weird at the time, despite not being very popular. I was the typical band geek, anime enthusiast, who still collected action figures. I actually remember being mistaken for a girl, during school pictures. Despite the way my […]
8th grade was probably my worst year growing up. On top of not knowing how to tame my curly/frizzy hair and wearing braces, I also had to put up with a friend bullying me and pushing me out of our circle of friends (it had to do with jealousy, I was later told). Everyone around […]
As an only child, Tristin has felt awkward for most of her life. Usually spending her free time with her imagination and playing in her grandmother’s garden. She never had any friends growing up. The one friend she did have in 6th grade told her that once they get to Junior High they were no […]
I was quite large as a child and teenager. Raised in a classic Southern fast food family, my childhood environment included poor nutrition & low activity on a daily basis. At my heaviest, I weighed over 250 lbs and since I was always taller than most other kids (I was 5’8 by 6th grade), I […]
I wanted to submit my photo because it’s a sensitive issue for me. I was made fun of, and bullied in elementary school and by the kids in my neighborhood. Everything from being told I would “never be pretty”, “no one will love you”, and throwing food at my face. So I buried myself in my studies […]