Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me — a phrase that we often heard in our childhood experiences. But as we grow up and we face the pressures to fit and look and act the right way, are these words really harmless?

Everywhere you look, the media has a way of critiquing aspects of celebrities’ lives and creating their own stories. It may seem harmless in our casual browsing of gossip magazines, but to what extent have these trends began to influence our lives?

Isn’t it bad enough to walk into a bathroom and see annoying writing all over the walls? Then people feel the need to make these words into harmful attacks, creating “slut lists” and labeling girls based on their own opinions.

Gossip has evolved from whispering behind each other’s backs, to writing in stalls, and now even to an Instagram account to spread rumors. “Lane Tech Gossip Girl” used Instagram posts to make vindictive claims about the students of our school. Even after the original account was shut down, a second account was created to continue the attack on both girls and boys in the sophomore class.

You would think after several movies and books published showing the harmful effects of gossip, people would think twice before saying these things.

“Mean Girls” taught us how words can throw someone’s life into a whirlwind. Just words to you can create a destructive identity for another, friends may be lost, and reputations can be ruined.

So who are we to decide how a person is treated every day at school? Who are we to decide     the looks that someone receives as they walk down the hall?

Words may be just words to you, but for some people it shapes how they live every day.

It starts as a simple joke with friends calling each other a name. That name is overheard by someone else and is spread around; then someone decides to create a story to explain the name. Before you know it, rumors are blown out of proportion and a girl is labeled something that she can’t even explain.

High school is already hard enough. Each year you have to study seven new classes that you know nothing about and try to get good grades. Each year you branch out, you try new clubs and new sports. Each year you meet new people and make new friends. Now we have to face the challenge of not knowing how we can act or what the repercussions of our choices will be.   Even worse, you have to figure out who your real friends are, which is always changing.

High school is hard enough for someone to create an identity, be confident, and surround herself with caring people. Do not take it upon yourself to make anyone’s time in high school any harder.

No one is perfect and yes, we are all human, and you are going to say things that hurt someone else.

It’s time to break these stereotypes —  you don’t want to be considered loud mouths and gossip queens, so stop we need to stop filling these roles. You know how hard it is to fit in and keep up with society’s standards. Don’t make it harder than it already is for someone to feel confident and accepted.

“If you don’t have anything nice to say, then don’t say anything at all,” another phrase that we used to roll our eyes at. But we can’t keep overlooking its importance, how hard is it to just take a second and think before we speak?

We need to understand that as easy as it is to blow off what we were taught in health and boring lectures in the auditorium about bullying, they were made for a reason. Our words can cause real damage.

So think before you speak; if you would be offended to hear something about you, don’t say it about someone else.  Also if you can’t say something to someone’s face, you most certainly shouldn’t be saying it behind their back or on the internet. If you think that you have the right to say what you want about someone else, they have the right to defend themselves. If you have the confidence to say something destructive about another person, you should be confident to say it to their face. If hiding behind a computer screen is the only way you can say the words, take that as a sign that you shouldn’t be saying them in the first place.

We get four years together at Lane, we get four years to make the best memories, and four years to become the people we will be in the future. Don’t waste our four years telling someone who they are and measure their worth by our opinions.