Expressing one’s individuality can be quite daunting, being one of over a thousand other students at Antioch Community High School. While some students do little to nothing to ensure their individuality is known, others center their entire appearance around self-expression. To many, having crazy hair, piercings or dressing strangely may seem like a way to get attention, but the students behind the get-ups have a whole other story to tell.

ACHS sophomore Jaynell Stephens feels strongly about presenting herself as an individual.

“[I do it] to be different than most people,” said Stephens. “I feel like if you’re like everyone else, nobody will notice you, [and] I feel like I’m more myself when I do things that differentiate myself from other people.”
ACHS junior Nicholas Reid sees himself as an individual, but has a little different reasoning for the way he presents himself.
“I do it because I really don’t care what people think of me. It’s just important to be yourself. You can’t let other people control [who you are],” said Reid. “They can have their opinion about me; I’m going to stay who I am and I’m not going to change because someone else says something negative about me.”
To ACHS junior Corynn DeCosse, individuality and self-expression were a part of her home life.

“I was brought-up [as an individual]. My family has always believed in self-expression. [In my family] it’s just like be who you are and not what other people see you as,” said DeCosse.
Reid is very adamant about what being an individual means to him.

“Being yourself is showing that you’re not going along with everyone else. You’re more of a leader than a follower. You dress how you want to dress. You do what you want to do with your life. You’re yourself. You act how you want to act. You don’t hide your emotions,” said Reid.
DeCosse knows that, like everyone else, she’s being judged every time she walks down one of ACHS’s halls. She believes that self-expression can help leave a more accurate impression.

“It’s important for me to express myself through the way that I look. And it’s important for me to know that when I walk down the hallways people can know me for who I am by looking at me and not [necessarily] having to learn what my personality is before[hand],” said DeCosse.
Stephans feels that expressing one’s individuality is essential to personal development.

“I feel like if you’re like everyone else then you’ll never know who you are. You’re just one of them, and then you don’t make choices for yourself,” said Stephans.
But not everyone understands why these students choose to express themselves the ways they do.

“People will be like: ‘oh my god why’d you do that?,’ ‘will your ears ever shrink [back from your gauges]?,’ ‘how are you going to feel when you have that hole in your face when you’re older?,’ or ‘if you dye your hair one more time is it going to all fall out?’ No, [those things] are not going to happen,” said DeCosse.
DeCosse believes that expressing one’s individuality is something important for everyone to do.

“I think it is really important that not everyone is that cookie-cuter that wears Abercrombie or American Eagle. I think it’s important for people to do what they want to do with themselves and not be afraid of what other people think and not be afraid if other people judge them,” said DeCosse.

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