A Teen's Perspective: On Staring

The third post in this series comes from LB. LB is a 17 year-old rising senior in high school, and is looking forward to heading off to college! Although in the real-world she has aspirations of majoring in psychology, I found out that given the choice - LB would rather be a witch in the Harry Potter universe. Her favorite spell? The lasso of fire Dumbledore released when fending off the Inferi. Witches and wizards beware, LB's magical prowess might catch you off guard if she catches you staring...! Check out her her own blog right here. 

STEP ONE: Determine the age of the starer
  • If the person is a young child, perhaps younger than 8 or 9, smile and wave. Maybe say hi. They probably won’t wave back to you, but will instead continue to stare in fascination.
  • If the person is older than the ages stated above, smile politely and if there is a smile in response, look away. If the person averts their gaze, ignore them. And if they keep staring? Do something ridiculous to make them feel embarrassed
The above steps were written partially tongue-in-cheek, but the thing is, staring happens a LOT with someone like me. I get it, I do. People are curious and I definitely do not look like the average person. It does bother me sometimes though.

One story in particular sticks out in my mind: My stepmom, stepaunt, and I all went to one of my high school’s football games because my cousin’s school marching band was performing in the halftime show. The stands were barely accessible, but that’s a story for another time. So we’re leaving at the end of the game, and my stepmom tells me there was a girl staring at me during the game. “How old was she?” I asked. My stepmom says that the girl looked about my age (I was 14 at the time). I was angry for a bit, then I was just sad. Shouldn’t teenagers have a basic sense of manners? Why did she feel the need to stare?

Over time I’ve taken to ignoring the older starers and helping educate the little ones. I always find it amusing when a kid touches some part of my chair and the parent FLIPS. If I don’t want your kid to touch it, I can tell them.

How do you deal with staring?

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