Mustafa Ali Quotes

I remember in middle school and high school being so concerned with what everybody else thought. I was trying to be someone I wasn't. I wish I could've just let it slide and not cared about it.

Middle school was probably my hardest time. I was trying to fit in for so long, until about junior year of high school when I realized that trying to fit into this one image of perfection was never going to make me happy.

I really wasn't heavy in high school. But no one feels right in their own skin, particularly in high school.

When I was in first grade, everyone made fun of my name, of course. I think it's kind of a big name to hold up when you're nine years old. It seemed goofy. I used to tell people I wanted to change the world and they used to think, 'This kid's really weird'.

As a teenage girl myself, I've gone through times in my life where I've felt insecure about who I am and have tried so hard to fit in with everyone else.

Adolescence is when girls experience social pressure to put aside their authentic selves and to display only a small portion of their gifts.

I spent my whole adolescence, when you just want to be accepted, looking much younger than everyone else.

When I was a teenager, I was super-awkward. I don't think I really felt comfortable in my body or with how I looked, and people were nasty.

At school, I felt out of place. I was bullied. I would think, 'These kids don't like me, they don't accept me,' but I felt like in the entertainment industry, I would fit in.

Wrestling definitely shaped the direction of my life because, before that, I wanted to fit in so much. I wanted to be one of the cool cats. I was friends with the captain of the football team because he had all the chicks. I wanted to be that guy.

As teenagers, we go through social, emotional and physical changes... and sometimes, to feel comfortable, we end up doing things that are not true to who we are just to fit in and feel loved.

I think a lot of young girls go through that period in their life of finding who they are, and at that point, looking good matters the most.

I have no issues with my identity.

I wish I knew at 14 not to put much thought into what other people my age said to me, cause we were all looking for the answers. So I wish I knew that other people really don't know any more than you do!

As a teenager at high school, I felt like an outsider.

I knew I belonged to the public and to the world, not because I was talented or even beautiful, but because I had never belonged to anything or anyone else.

I don't tend to think of these characters as losers. I like the struggles that people have, people who are feeling like they don't fit into society, because I still sort of feel that way.

I was very average in the social label scale going through school. I was neither the coolest person in school, nor did I suffer the slings and arrows of being made fun of to such a degree that I couldn't get through the day.

As social beings we live with our eyes upon our reflection, but have no assurance of the tranquillity of the waters in which we see it.

I think the hardest part about being a teenager is dealing with other teenagers - the criticism and the ridicule, the gossip and rumors.

When I was younger, the pressure was just being cool. I never thought of myself as a cool guy. I always thought of myself as more of the goofy guy.

I had a tough time fitting in, as I guess most kids do. I felt like school was kind of a grand opportunity to figure yourself out and to figure out what you wanted.

I was going to middle school in Berkley, and I did not fit in at all. Like a lot of kids, I found theater to be a good place for me.

When I was little, I guess I was just an ordinary kid. But then things changed when I was in junior high. You know, kids that become geeks become one because of something. Like, they aren't good at sports, or girls don't like them. I, too, for some reason, got into things like science fiction and, well, especially science fiction as an escape.

There's absolutely no way you can feel the freedom to embarrass and humiliate yourself unless you have finally recognized that your identity is in someone other than yourself.