Dena is the average seventeen-year-old girl, confident and unique. But she wasn’t always this way. Society tried to bully her into conforming, but she refused and rose above society’s expectations. She tells her story to bring awareness of the damaging effects of society’s beauty standards.
Dena explains that her bullying began in the second grade and continued all the way through eighth grade. She was bullied because she did not fit into society’s image of what the average teenage girl should look like. Dena explains, “I wasn’t like them. I was different—not a basic blonde cheerleader everyone wanted me to be.” She then went further, and explained how she was different from the stigma created by society. “We were very poor. I dressed differently. I always wore all black. I dyed my hair strange colors.”
These are just some of the ways she listed, that made her different from society’s delusion of how someone should look. Society’s image of perfection is implanted into our minds by magazines, social media, television, and by our willingness to accept them. When someone refuses to accept these stereotypes, society discriminates against them. Dena says, “Everyone is supposed to be the same or similar. If one person is different or tries to be, they are casted out and labeled freaks, misfits, rejects.”
The Bullying Begins
Exposing Society’s Lies
of Perfection
*Names may have been changed to allow anonymity.
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