Students who are part of a clique can be considered outcasts and sometimes are pressured into doing something or being someone they are not.

Students form social groups or cliques and can sometimes exclude others. Some are put into certain groups without their choice. While others, though, have chosen whom they want to hang out with and whom they want to hate. Students strive to be in certain groups and are deeply hurt if they are not accepted.

“Social groups affect me. I cry every night because I am not popular. It really hurts on the inside,” said an anonymous source.

Some cliques have affected students in the past, but they have chosen to move past it.

“They don’t really affect me that much anymore. I used to think that they were important, but now they don’t matter,” said Sophomore Chelsea Preston.

Students may go to great lengths to change themselves in order to fit in with whatever group they want to be a part of. They cometimes completely change themselves for others to like them.

“In Junior High, I changed myself a lot in the beginning, but near the end, I just decided to myself,” said Preston.

The groups students are in can determine their personality.

“I would classify myself in the popular group, even though I am not. I want to be [popular] so bad,” said an anonymous source.

Students should be themselves no matter what, but there is still that temptation to change.

“I would love to be in the popular group so that I would be loved, adored, and accepted by my peers instead of them throwing stones at me,” said an another anonymous source.