Your UnSlut Project

Submitted by @been1234

When I was in 5th grade I was considered a tomboy. I hated dresses, pink, and anything girly. By the time middle school started I'd changed just a tiny bit, but was still a tomboy. I would walk around campus and I'd always hear people talking about me, or gossiping. I thought it was for something I did; that I was doing something wrong.

The first day of 8th grade, I came back to school a whole different person. I styled my hair, wore a little bit of makeup, and I loved dresses and skirts. But the whispers and gossip continued, and we're worse than before. The rumors were the absolute worst part. I remember that one of them was that I left class (when all I had was a bladder problem) and took boys to the bathroom. After that I would constantly hear the words "slut" "whore" or "skank" whenever I walked by.

By the middle of the school year, I basically hid in my shell. I had only talked to very few people, and whenever any socializing event went on, I would hide in the library. I'm not sure the whole becoming a high schooler really changed much of anything, people still whispered, still looked. Word truly does travel fast because by the second week of school even the seniors had heard what was happening. As I figured out the talking would not stop, I became depressed (and my mother denied it, she would just say I was seeking attention). I was sad that people that I didn't even know could hate me so much. I thought about death a lot, but I could never bring myself to harm. I don't know why, but I never could.

Finally in the middle of my freshman year, one of the seniors that I talked to came up to me. She walked right up and hugged me. She started to cry, and told me that I was too pretty to die, too young, too sweet. She told me to never look down on myself for what others think of me, only my opinion matters. She brought me to her small group of friends and after that they brought me out of my shell. Sometimes people just don't know the effect their words have on other people. I guess the saying "sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me" is false.