Individuality Vs Conformity

For most, conformity is a part of life that makes us feel safe, but as we grow our individual interests and preferences make us different from others, causing us to be torn between our desire for conformity and individuality. I feel that although the pressures to conform may be overwhelming, it’s important to be true to yourself and embrace your individuality.

Growing up we all experience the pressures of other people, we change ourselves to be liked by everyone, all the while losing who we are. As Rita Mae Brown, an American writer, activist and feminist states, “I think the reward for conformity is that everyone likes you except yourself.” In high school, it’s rare to see girls without layers of makeup, the newest fashion, and bubbly personalities.

They seem cheerful and exuberant, but under all of the makeup and clothes, there’s just normal girls wanting to be liked and hiding their true personalities. Many cheerleaders and drill team members have been discovered to starve themselves, face depression, and have suicidal tendencies, due to the pressures they face to conform to the cheerleader standards of happy, skinny, beautiful girls.
Always conforming to others wants can greatly limit your growth, both mentally and physically. Many people won’t follow their dreams or passions, and end up stuck at jobs they hate all because people will tell them they can’t do it, and that it’s easier to stick with what everybody else does. As John F. Kennedy once said, “Conformity is the jailer of freedom and the enemy of growth.” If you follow what other people want, you’ll never challenge yourself to do things others consider difficult or silly, and you’d be limiting yourself from achieving greater things.
Conformity is a way to get others to like you, but if you want to truly like yourself, you should embrace your individuality. Ignore what others want you to do or think, and mold yourself into the person that you want to be.