My assigned lot in life is that of the mother of
             a fifteen-year-old son. My son has not yet gone
             through the growth spurt that always accompanies
             I can imagine that as my son, I would feel
             extremely self-conscious at all times. Speaking from
             experience, it's hard to be so different than all your
             classmates are. Many high-school students dislike
             having distinguishing features that set them apart
             from the rest, such as being short. These features
             can be the basis for a lot of teasing and humiliation.
             Being a female, I don't have any first-hand
             experience dealing with a male's perspective, but I
             would think it would be even harder to be a short boy.
             Males in our society are stereotypically strong and
             muscular. Rarely do we see couples in which the wife
             is taller than the husband. My son must feel
             humiliated by his peers because he does not fit the
             Teenagers are very impressionable. They are
             still trying to form their own identity, separate from
             that of their parents. Most adolescents want to be a
             person that everyone else likes and accepts, and some
             will take drastic measures to be just that. It could
             get to a point where my son would try to take some
             sort of growth supplement from the back cover of a
             magazine, which would not be a healthy idea.
             Teenagers often have such a burning desire to fit in
             that they hate themselves when they cannot. I say all
             of this from experience, currently going through "the
             The thing to remember, though, is that everyone
             grows at a different rate, and not everyone is truly
             laughing at you. This information will be extremely
             hard for my son to believe, because I as a teenager
             myself still don't get it. When you walk into a room,
             it is impossible for everyone to be staring at you and
             laughing about your appearance, because th
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