Story By MsBelleSugar

Starting at a young age, girls are taught to not dress in a provocative way. They're told that they shouldn't act a certain way or boys will get the wrong idea. This starts in middle school. "This" being the pressure girls undergo to impress guys. This sort of "you need to make sure guys notice you, but don't be too revealing" situation. It's the start of the great internal debate, the argument girls have with themselves every day: "I don't want to be a prude, but I don't want to be a slut. What do I wear today?"  So, it starts in middle school. After years of not worrying about what we're wearing or if our make-up looks good or not, we are now seeing those are the most important things in our lives. Suddenly, there's a dress code, and I can't show my shoulders and my shorts are too short and my shirt is too low cut. It starts when you're sent out of class to change, sometimes even sent home because now boy...

I have always disagreed with the popular "sticks and stones" phrase because the memory of painful words can be incredibly destructive to one self-esteem. I still vividly remember the day my sixth grades crush announced that I was the most unattractive girl in school. I also remember the girl in middle school who told me to put the "pampers" on cause I hit puberty at the age of 10. I was lucky enough to avoid any further events by attending a different high school, but most teens do not have that choice and are broken by the constant abuse from peers. Continued verbal torment can lead to social and emotional developmental problems, extreme anxiety, and even suicide.  Verbal bullying has taken a new form as we continue to develop Internet sources that can easily spread information. Recently, while discussing a topic  of bullying with a friend of mine, she pulled up a page on the Internet devoted to insulting teenage girls. Not only were most of them from the same...