When you’re a young teenager, everything is embarrassing. Never have you been so carefully monitored by everyone around you as you are from ages 12 to 14,  or at least that’s what it feels like. Kids are used to parents and teachers being in their business and telling them what to do, but when their peers laser-focus on any noticeable difference between them and the kids around them, it feels like the end of the world. 

As a middle schooler, you try as hard as possible not to stand out negatively. That’s super difficult because nobody goes through the throes of puberty unscathed, but you can at least try to control yourself from being embarrassing as best you can. You can’t so easily force your parents not to embarrass you, because they have power over you and are far less affected by embarrassment. One dad recently went viral on Reddit after his teen son asked for their house to be painted «a normal color,» and the adults in the comments agreed that this phase soon shall pass.