Weight, religion, clothing and interests are just some of the things students may feel insecure about.
Insecurities are not limited and can be about any aspects of one’s life they feel they may be judged about. According to psychcentral.com, anxiety in adolescents due to insecurities can lead to mental and physical issues later on, such as frequent headaches, abdominal pain and joint pain.

Freshman Connor Murray said he feels insecure when he is at the center of attention, when he is in groups of people and when he has to interact with new people.

“Being in a large crowd just makes me really uncomfortable because I’m not used to that,” Murray said. “Talking to new people it’s just the same thing. I don’t really know them, and I don’t how to act around them.”

Murray said he thinks his insecurities originated when he was growing up.

“I never really interacted too much with people when I was little,” Murray said.

Junior Lane Koster said he feels self-conscious when people talk about his religion. He said because he is Mormon, people assume things about him due to the various beliefs surrounding Mormonism.

“People use stereotypes, and they say stuff that they don’t really know what they are talking about,” Koster said. “[People say] that we have multiple wives, that we don’t believe in God, that we are a cult, stuff like that.”

According to Principal Doug Holland, most students struggle with insecurities about how they look.

“Well I think almost all teenagers at some point struggle with insecurity,” Holland said. “I think most students struggle with the insecurity of how they look.”

Freshman Brittney Nelson said she is unconfident in her body size and feels she is being criticized when in a crowd of strangers.

“I feel insecure when around large groups of people that I don’t know because I feel like they are always judging me,” Nelson said.

Nelson said she sometimes tries to hide her body under oversized clothing.

“Sometimes I do when I wear baggy clothes and just stuff to cover myself,” Nelson said.

Being insecure is not confined to teenagers, according to Holland.

“I don’t think it’s limited just to students,” Holland said. “I think as adults we are [insecure] too.”

Murray said he tries to overcome his insecurities by joining classes that force him to interact with a group of people.

“That’s why I’m in theatre, choir and other things to get me involved with other people,” Murray said.

Nelson said she has also tried to overcome her insecurities.

“When I started doing sports my insecurities became less,’ Nelson said. “I used to have more, and I kind of overcame them when I started doing sports.”

Holland said caring about what other people think can determine a person’s confidence.

“The self-esteem of a person is driven by what you hear from other people,” Holland said. “I think we’re all kind of insecure about how people judge us. It is important to us how we are judged and how people think about us.”