Yes, peer pressure is a very real thing. I've seen it with my own kids and grandkids. Fortunately they survived and became productive members of society, but I could tell stories, too! I will just tell one that I recently told my daughter who has a teenage daughter right now who just got some piercings and dyed her beautiful blond hair green! She is a straight A student, though, but the peer pressure is still there.

Anyway, when my daughter was in kindergarten, her teacher had told the class to color a big golden moon on one of their assignments. Her teacher didn't know it, but she could actually read and found the color that said "gold" on it and then used it to color the moon gold. Well, she came home upset because the teacher didn't like it (she had wanted it to be colored yellow) and chastized her for not following instructions. So I talked to the teacher to clear it up that she had followed instructions, and she was like "OH!!!" So then after that her teacher just thought she was the greatest kid ever and used her work as an example to other students which didn't really help matters because then they thought she was the teacher's pet, blah blah blah, and she didn't really want to be singled out in that way, either. But the reason I told her that story (that she didn't even remember) was because she was telling me that her daughter seems to not want to be the "pretty girl" and doesn't seem to want that kind of attention, and she IS a very beautiful girl... many have told her she looks like Taylor Swift. But she has said she doesn't like Taylor Swift... seems to like Billie Eilish better. LOL

But yeah, life can be complicated, and the environment we and our children are in is and can be SO important. I would think most can see that in what is going on in the country right now. Hopefully, most people are starting to see how the milignant leader/CIC is affecting the national and world environment right now in such a negative way, and will take steps to finally turn him and his cronies out so that we can get back to a saner, more compassionate and more just path instead of stoking or buying into the fires of hate and division.