Break the 'popular' rules

(MENAFN- Khaleej Times) Oh. My. God. Will you look at that? This chick just uploaded her sixth profile picture this month. How desperate is that? Uhhh....you've been keeping count, huh?
In today's day and age, all teenagers have this constant pressure to look good all the time and to be up to date with all of the "buzz" and the "tabloids". We should be knowing all the songs in Justin Bieber's new album by heart, or we should "totes" think that Hotline Bling by Drake is absolutely "sick". Also, contrary to the popular belief, it is not just girls who have to have an 'on point' eyeliner, no, the boys do too, not an on point eyeliner of course, but they have to have "cool" hair and sunglasses hanging off their shirt and all of that. At this point you must be thinking, but why? Who asks them to be this way or do all of this? It's themselves, their friends, their peers, the "popular" kids at school. As a teenager, one of the most important things to you would be your popularity especially if you're high up the social hierarchy. Although, at the end of the day, even if someone uploads regularly they are tagged as "snobs" and "despos", and if they don't, it's obviously because their uploads aren't worth the "time" and "attention".
Social media is the main judgement of how popular, or beautiful or handsome for that matter, a person might be. You have the highest number of likes on your photo? Damn, you must be pretty! You have 753 comments?! Hmm, if I follow her maybe I'll have more likes too...
Although, what matters the most, or should matter the most, to all the teenagers out there, to you, is you. It's your quirky and eccentric and unorthodox style that matters. You're the coolest when you're being your outlandish self, when you're being offbeat. So don't stop doing 'you'.

City Times reader Shreya Misra is a 14-year-old studying at The Millennium School, Dubai