Society doesn't need to tell you who to be. You need to tell yourself who to be.

Darkness fills the whole street but inside the light of *Arabella’s room, but it is the darkest and most painful room of all, with open wounds and fresh scars,tears streaming down her face, blood from her hands, trembling she opens her laptop, and returns to her escape. Her dashboard is filled with both motivational messages and depressed messages. She wipes her tears, silently crying just like how she struggles, peering into her laptop she scrolls. All because she is different from the rest. She looks at the mirror and repeats to herself like every other painful day ‘no one will know, and no one will find out’ she washes her face and cuts and puts on a plastic smile. She whispers to herself ‘no one will know, and no one will find out. 

And we finally understand the words.'funny when you’re dead, how people start listening’. Finally, after years of wretched life she, like many others gave up. And family and friends are shocked they should of helped when they had the chance, but let it slip right through their hands. Now everyone thinks she the most beautiful girl and wished they were there to support her but they are too late. And to all the bullies, they are in some way a cause for their death, and it will haunt them forever. And just like that a life is gone from a teenager killing herself with negativity because of the standards that say they will never be ‘good enough. 

Every day around the world, millions of teenagers are pressured to be like others and be what society wants them to be. People are often caught between who they want to be and who they have to be to fit in. And no matter how hard they try they never fit in, they’re killing themselves with negativity.
This is something everyone faces at one point or the other. And mostly this change you and how you think of yourself and how you think others see you. A simple case is how media suppress the truth, though photoshop and lies. Girls are lead to believe that they need to be a size ‘0’ have a thigh gap, need to have a light skin tone, flawless skin, blonde/hazel hair basically a perfect girl, only she is unachievable. This makes girls feel like they are worthless and will never be good enough.This leads to zero self esteem and deeper issues like Depression, bullying,seizures, panic attacks and self harm.

This isn't only for the issue of women's body image these side effects are for everything that causes people to feel like they aren't ‘good enough’,people are afraid to express themselves as they think their peers are going to judge them and mock them. Some communities and schools aren't accepting and teenagers have to resolve into hiding their sextuality, just to fit in. They have been repeatedly told by others and themselves that liking the same sex is wrong! Who are egoistic, half baked (straight) teenagers, to judge a peer for being with someone their heart desires. Furthermore, parents (and adults) must stop being insensitive and telling their child that something is wrong with them just for liking the same sex.

Often times teenagers try to get through this pressure by doing things that harm them even more a common reliefs are drinking, smoking or doing drugs, this can start at the age of 14 or 18, though, who can blame them for giving themselves misguided advice, they are only children who have lost their way. And though those are extremely common reliefs people resort there are more and one of the most painful and self wrecking relief known to teenagers, Self harm.

As it is often misinterpreted self harm isn't just cutting, it is also burning, scratching, banging or hitting body parts, interfering with wound healing ,hair-pulling and the ingestion of toxic substances or objects and eating disorders,most of these actions are done out of suicidal intentions but it is more than that. It is when teenagers feel like they aren't good enough and their life is messed up , to a point where is can never be good again, and the only thing they have control over is their body.

They feel like they aren't good, they feel frustrated and annoyed that they can never do anything right and they start hating themselves, and mistreating their body because, at this point they feel that is the only thing they have control over. And yes, teenagers do die of this as they aren't capable of treating their wounds. Also, there is an increased risk of suicides on a person who self harms, self harm is found in 40% to 60% of suicide cases.

Although teenagers resort to things that hurt themselves, they only want to be heard out and want people to understand them. Because teenagers are the most misunderstood people, they are treated like kids, but are expected to act like adults. It’s not just girls (women) suffering from this tons of boy (men) do unheard or overheard by the loud speaking macho men. And very ones have their problems.

And most often times when consulted with an adult, they think that teenagers' lives are easy and they don't have any real problems, but that's what makes us feel like no one understands them even more! Honestly, teenagers just want to be heard out. To help teenagers being heard and understood several websites have been created for this purpose like http://www.7cupsoftea.com and https://www.imalive.org/, Also, there is a lifeline 1–800–273–8255, for teenagers who want to, tell people what they are going through and just have someone listen for once.

Though everyone wants to be heard out and understood, it's easier for some people than others. Some people don’t like pointing out all the flaws in their lives to people, they rather do it to a close family member or friend, but often times they are misunderstood and many teenagers go through this struggle in silence. And most times this struggle leads to suicidal thoughts and sometimes you completely lose. Often people have just had enough of being compared and being bullied, they block everything out forever.



*Fake name

Bullying Should Become A Major Concern To Kids and Should Stop

What has made school a living dungeon to some kids? Why have some kids come home, anxious about the next day? An anonymous source expresses his feelings to a reporter and says, “I feel depressed when people call me names, I don’t feel as if I should go to school the next day after I get teased.” Another victim of the issue says, “I try to ignore it as best as I can, I feel so defenceless that I have to make fun of myself when other people make fun of me.” These victims have had issues with being a victim of bullying and aren’t the only victims in the world that are being bullied.

Picture this, a dark night at Katong Park. This wasn’t the right time and environment for a fight to start. However, the wind and the silence was broken when a friendly kids soccer game turned into a living horror. Two teams were going against each other, one of the teams were called Homies FC and the opponent was BSFC. The team captain of Homies FC was found scrambling with bruises on his head after a fight with the opposing team members. A witness of the fight says that the team captain of Homies FC was found scratching a teammate on the opposite team. It was after a violent argument of teasing and cursing that the argument led to dripping blood from the opposing teammates lip. The dripping blood from the opposing teammate led the older brother to vigorously smack the team captain of Homies FC. The hard smacks to the head and a blow to the stomach left massive bruisings, it was only when the brother was out of breath that the whole team of BSFC made a run for it. The wet ground and the dark clouds watching over the fighting victims only made the afternoon more horrifying. With an unpleasant environment, the night couldn’t have gotten any worse.

Victims of bullying have said that they would sometimes come home and start crying in their rooms, just like how a boy named August would always end up crying about how he is always teased at school about his demented face. Bullies and victims of bullying usually have trouble focusing on their school work as the bully usually feels as if he or she are too cool for school. According to ABC news, either 30% of students are bullies or victims of bullying. There are an estimated 4,400 deaths per year due to suicides, among every suicide of young people, there are at least 100 suicide attempts due to bullying. Kids who are bullied can experience negative physical, school, and mental health issues.

Kids who are usually bullied are more likely to experience things such as depression and anxiety, increased feelings of sadness and loneliness, changes in sleep and eating patterns. They will even have a loss of interest in hobbies they used to enjoy, these issue most likely to follow up into the child’s adulthood. They will even have health complaints. An organisation known as “Stop Bullying.gov” says that bullied children are most likely to have decreased academic achievement-GPA and standardized test scores-and school participation. They are most likely to miss, skip, or drop out of school. According to the website against bullying, they say that bullied children may use violent actions. In 12 or 15 school shooting cases in 1990, the shooters have had a history of being bullied. This is just like how Roy, a boy who cares about a group of owls in a construction sight is bullied by a boy named, Dana Matherson. As Roy and Dana have been fighting since the start of the school, it only ended until Roy took action by punching Dana in the face on a school bus, this breaking Dana’s nose.

Bullies and bystanders are also affected. Bullies are most likely to engage in early sexual activity or be abusive toward their romantic partner, spouses or children as adults. Bystanders are also affected as there will usually be an increase use of tobacco, alcohol or other drugs, increased mental health or may miss or skip school.

Bullying affects almost everyone involved, these clear reasons are why bullying is an issue to be concerned over. With people like August, a kid with a demented face who are treated as outsiders, we all have a reason to be concerned over bullying. Treated as an outsider, he was always dealing with bullies and popular kids. He would always be called names like “Ogre” or the “Hobbit”. Only lucky to have his friends to defend him like how they defended him at an environmental camp, without them, he would be toast. With a negative or violent output towards the result of everyone involved in the bullying activity, it is crystal clear reason why bullying has no benefit and there isn’t any reason why bullying can literally burn someone from the inside forever. Some people get bullied everyday, for racial color to facial disorders.

Bullying happens on an everyday notice, it even happens to the major characters of books, like Katniss and how she has to deal with the bullying of the capital, or how August has to deal with the bullying of people at his school. Bullying is a detrimental reason why kids are afraid and scared everyday, and for that reason, bullying has to stop, no matter how easing it is to do it or no matter what reason it is for bullying the victim. Bullying is like cancer, destroying the soles and heart of everyone involved.