I have known Madeleine since the day she was born. As a baby she would stare with her small, innocent eyes open taking in the world around her. Now, 13 years old, she has grown into a girl with a bright future, ready to spread her wings and take her first flight into high school. I remember the first time I saw her without that naïve look about her. When she was in sixth grade, she wore makeup for the first time because she was performing in a musical. Her eyes were lined with black liner and her lashes brushed with mascara, making her eyes pop. The color on her lids and the blush on her face made me think I was looking at a different person entirely.She did look pretty, but it was a different pretty. That was the first time it really hit me that she was no longer a little girl. She was still Madeleine, but she looked more like a teenager than a child to me.Now, two years later she is about to enter high school. It seems like only yesterday that I stepped onto my high school campus for the first time, and now she is about to take those first steps too. High school. Those two words trigger

adjectives, both positive and negative, for a place where students spend many excruciating and fun filled hours over the course of four years.Besides the fact that the academics are more chal-lenging and different, there are also new teachers and peers. Here, people become their own per-son and supposedly start breaking away from the norm. But with the change comes everyone’s watchful eye. The gossip in the hallways can cause people to be too afraid to be themselves and they end up being someone they are not. Madeleine Wright, a current eighth grader, will undergo this transition in less than a year and knows that it’s not going to be easy. She has been going to the same school for the past nine years and has never experienced what most kids have – changing schools. Not only will she be entering a new grade, but she will also be leaving her child-hood behind and taking a step into adulthood. Madeleine Lee Wright: She is thirteen years old, born on May 31, 1999. She is approx-imately five feet four inches high with long, tan, and lean legs. She looks like a runner. Her brown,

Madeleine Wright at a park she grew up playing at.

The Wright Girlby Michelle Chan

not-curly-but-not-straight-hair is in a ponytail. To-day she tells me that she did not straighten it. She is a very beautiful person, inside and out. Her eyes are hazel with dense lashes, and her plump lips that closely resemble her great-grandmother’s. She currently has braces with neon green bands but will soon be taking them off. Madeleine lives with her mother, Cyndy; her father Pat; her dog, Buddy; and her parrot, Watson in Mountain View, California, a bustling little city in the heart of the Silicon Valley. She lives down the street from several large parks where she both runs and walks her dog. And only five minutes away is her fu-ture high school, Saint Francis. Currently, Madeleine is an eighth grader attending Saint Simon Parish School. In her school’s student council, she holds the role of secretary and ran with the slogan of “Make the

WRIGHT choice!” In the afternoons Madeleine plays soccer and participates in musical theatre. Al-though she is involved in many activities, Made-leine is able to balance these extra-curricular activ-ities while still making time for family and friends. Madeleine wears typical teenager clothes. The Converse shoes, the shorts, the layered shirts, and light accessories. However, at school Madeleine wears none of that. For the past nine years, she has been wearing the Saint Simon standard blue and white uniform. Next year, the dress code will be “nonexistent” when compared to Saint Simon’s. Currently, Madeleine can only express herself through the form of clothing out-side of school. Next year, when she can choose what she wants to wear, she will be making a statement to her peers. Some people may dress like her and others will dress the complete opposite. However, there may

Madeleine and her dog, Buddy.

a time in high school where she could be teased for what she is wearing if her outfit is not considered “normal”. People have all different kinds of opinions but just because someone might call you out on some-thing you wear doesn’t mean that you should stop

wearing it. Although a small form of peer pres-sure, telling or teasing someone about what they wear can really hurt someone, as clothing is a form of expression. According to Parent Further, an organization

designed to assist parents in helping their child succeed, “only ten percent of teenagers surveyed said that they had not been influenced by peer pressure. In that same group, twenty-eight percent of teenagers agreed that giving into peer pressure improved their social standing” (Zeiger). I asked Madeleine to share with me any times that she had felt the need to do something to fit in. At first she didn’t seem like she was going to say anything, but then she opened her mouth and slowly began to talk about the time when one of her friends teased her about her clothing attire.  “If I do my hair, my friend will tell me… ‘why are you wearing it like that?’ I don’t think she cares about what she looks like and doesn’t understand why people waste time getting ready, but I think how you appear is important” (Wright). Madeleine explained to me that even though her friend made that comment, it’s not going to change what she wears because she doesn’t believe that you should change something just because someone tells you to. When I asked her what

she thought peer pressure would be like in high school she told me, “I think judgment is everywhere. I expect there to be a lot of judgment.” Madeleine is aware that judgment and peer pressure exist, but especially in high school. “I’m hoping high school won’t make me try to act a certain way to try and fit in because you should really act who you are” (Wright). That first time I saw Madeleine with makeup I saw a totally new person. She no longer looked to me like a little kid but instead like a young adult. Just that little brush of make-up made her face look so different. I asked her if her friends wear make-up and she told me that only two do. According to Discover Your Daugh-ter, an organization designed to help par-ents understand their daughters, the age at which girls start to wear makeup is in middle school. This age seems reasonable as that is when kids start experimenting with who they are what they believe in. But Madeleine is different; she doesn’t get makeup – at least not yet. “I’m not too big on make-up. I don’t really find the purpose of it.” But then she quickly adds that she would wear eyeliner if her friends put it on her. “I have nothing against makeup. I don’t find it a necessity. Makeup is just saying…it’s putting clothes on your face. To make ourselves look better we put on better clothes. So we put makeup on to make ourselves look better.” Madeleine seems to get the point of it even though she says she doesn’t. At least for right now, she doesn’t feel like she needs to wear it in order to feel “cool”, to feel pretty, or to fit in.

“I want to stay me. I’m okay with little changes. Good changes.”

“10% of teens surveyed said that they had not been influenced by peer pressure.” -Parent Further

In a heavily criticized television series, “Tod-dlers and Tiaras”, toddlers compete in pageants com-plete with a full face of makeup. They look like Barbies with their wigs and fancy dresses. But how does this affect the kids when they grow up and feel like they can’t be pretty without makeup? In an article by Lucia Grosaru, a psychologist and psychotherapist, she strongly disagrees with these pageants as they “pro-mote physical beauty as a main value. A child, espe-cially a female that is going to pay so much attention to her looks and that knows she is being assessed for it, is very proned to develop eating disorders.” (Psychology Corner). As Madeleine enters high school she knows that she doesn’t want to feel pressured into wearing something just because other people are and can only hope to preserve her youthfulness and her carefree ways. She knows that there will be pressure to conform but she hopes that school won’t change her to make her different. “It wouldn’t be me” Madeleine says. Only time will tell what will happen as she make the big leap next fall. High school can be a very interesting place with different people with different backgrounds and ideas. I know Madeleine will be very successful in this environment because she is a very well rounded per-son. She told me that she wants to participate in both the cross country and track team and I think she has a good shot at being part of the team. When I asked her what she wanted to be when she grows up, she told me an elementary school teacher. I think this would be the

perfect profession for her as she loves kids and is great with them. Whenever her little cousins come over I have seen her play with them with genuine patience and kindness. I asked her if she would ever consider being a high school or j unior high teacher and she chuckled and said, “There’s too much drama in the upper grades and it’s too hard to teach the harder stuff.” Before I entered high school I was very scared From television and movies I and nervous and ex-pected it to be a place where teachers were strict and difficult, and where students were evil queen bees like Regina George from Mean Girls. But that is totally not the case. High school is a wonderful place where you meet many nice people and grow as a person. I have changed so much these past four years and I will con-tinue to even after. Although Madeleine hopes high school won’t change her too much, the truth is it will. However, it is really up to her as to how much she lets it change her. She can either fight the change or she can welcome it with open arms. Either way, high school will be a great experience for her and will change her in all the right ways. It’s something that I hope she will be excited for her as the countdown begins. Madeleine expects there to be people who pressure her to change, she hopes that through it she will stay herself. “I want to stay me. I’m okay with little changes. Good changes.”