Many young teenage girls on the edge of 15 can’t wait for a certain special day: their Sweet Sixteen. 50 of their closest friends, a venue fleshed out in technicolor, and dresses that were last in style during the Regency era. There’s nothing quite like a girl’s Sweet Sixteen—countless movies from the ’80s made sure of that.

Sure, the parties themselves might seem a bit superficial. What they represent to the teenage girls, though, is more important—a coming-into-oneself type of deal. Clichés are clichés for a reason, after all. Not every parent’s eyes will sparkle with excitement when they see the bill for all of their precious daughter’s «needs» and wants, so that’s why the teen in this story fronts the bill herself. Even still, her mother cancels the entire event because, well, they can. The teen explains that her mother was always this way, and she needs to stick up for herself after all of the trouble her mother put her through. Scroll to read the entire story below.