Red hair, black eyeliner, all black clothing and heavy metal music.

These four phrases describe my appearance and the music that plays through my headphones.

Due to my appearance, I am automatically characterized as emo.

This brings me to the question, what is emo?

Emo is a style of rock music that resembles punk but has more complex arrangements and lyrics that deal with more emotional subjects, originating in the 1990’s.

Last time I checked, I wasn’t a genre of music.

Emo can also be used to describe someone as emotional, but if that’s the case, wouldn’t we all be emo?

We all have emotions, whether we’re open with them or not.

A person can’t be a genre of music, and everyone has emotions.

Over the years, emo has been made into a derogatory word that describes someone’s appearance.

With my experience of the word, an emo appearance usually consists of wearing all black and having hair in your face or wearing a band shirt.

With that, people can misinterpret our personalities by our appearance.

The other day, I was walking to Spanish class and one of my friends was walking with me.

We stopped outside of my classroom and continued our conversation before he headed off to class.

I walked into my classroom, where a classmate proceeded to ask me if my friend was my boyfriend, for the simple fact that he looked like me.

My question is, why? Why is it that people who look a certain way are classified by this word and grouped together?

Most of my friends are the complete opposite of me.

I don’t just hang out with people who wear all black and look emo.

How would you like it if you were classified into a group that is typically looked down upon because of how you dress or what you listen to?

My little sister has a class where her teacher constantly stereotypes people who wear black eyeliner, black clothing and listen to rock as people who commit suicide.

What sense does that even make?

Another thing: why is it that people assume if you listen to this or dress like that, then you self-harm?

I don’t remember that being in my health textbook.

Just because I look a certain way doesn’t mean I’m going to harm myself.

People interpret emo as a preconceived notion on how someone looks or how someone thinks they act.

Is there really a point in judging someone just because they wear dark clothing, have colored hair or piercings; who cares?

It doesn’t harm you, just like how you dress doesn’t harm me.

How we look or what we’re interested in shouldn’t be characterized under one term.

I am not emo. I am Christina, my own unique person.

What are you?