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I was in 6th grade and I had just entered that phase in my life where a girl transitions into a woman. My biggest problem was that my whole face was practically covered with pimples. It hadn't come to my attention that I did not look as 'pretty' as the other girls in my grade, until a bunch of guys started calling me names behind my back. For the first term of the school year, I tried not to think about what those boys were saying about me. Slowly 'the name calling' spread around the whole grade and before I knew it, I was known as 'pimplika'. I tried to not let this become such a big part of my teen years, but eventually it started bothering me and the more I cared, the more this name haunted me. At one point I felt like I was good for nothing. Every time someone saw me, they would immediately say 'PIMPLIKA' without even thinking about my feelings. There were times when I didn't want to go to school because of this. I would lock myself up in my room and just think about this situation. Sometimes I would even cry. 6th grade went by with me known as 'pimplika'. It continued for a while in 7th grade as well, and this was when I met an amazing group of friends who made me believe in me. They told me to never feel insecure about the way I looked. I stopped caring about what those people would say and just focused on ways to improve my skin condition. as I entered my 8th year, people started calling me 'pretty' and 'beautiful' and those words would just make me want to come to school every day. Just never stop believing in yourself because everyone is pretty and beautiful in their own way.
-Arika