Private:
Please describe your school: Um, I go to an all girls school, there are around 50 girls in my grade. We all know each other really well. The workload is crazy. Most of the girls live in the neighborhood of the school, a couple live in Westchester or like Brooklyn. Some girls party a lot while some girls don’t do anything at all. There aren't really cliques if there is any exclusion it’s between two people not a whole bunch of people. There are of course groups of friends but they aren’t really exclusive.
What does cool mean to you? That’s a good question…cool means being able to pull anything off. Or get away with anything. Physical Characteristics play a huge role, really skinny and pretty of course, its even better when someone has something corky or odd that looks good on them.
Why do you believe people are so concerned about physical appearance? Very few people know you well enough to judge you on anything but your appearance. How you present yourself to the world. I want to say it comes from magazines and movies but usually the pressure comes from competition with your friends. You’re going to be more jealous of a friend than a movie star.
Do clothes play a huge role in the cool factor? Yeah, because there can be a lot of things that can be cool like your personality or your lifestyle, but the biggest factor is appearance.
What if someone was ugly in your opinion but had expensive designer clothes on? It wouldn’t make a difference they would still be ugly. I wouldn’t consider them cool because if there’s no foundation the house will fall down. If they are weird they can’t pull anything off.
Do you think your cool? I’m working on that…I wouldn’t be able to know if I was you cant be objective when you ask yourself that question. Its kind of impossible to judge yourself I would have to ask others.
When you think of the word cool who comes to your mind first? Really tall skinny, white skinny jeans J Brand of course…Knee high leather boots from Marc Jacob…Navy V-neck t-shirt from American Apparel I guess. A really cool colorful jacket I don’t know which designer but it should be one. Tiffany and Co. Jewelry to top it off. And don’t forget the Anya Hindmarch bag.
Why do you think we care so much about being cool? It makes you unique yet accepted at the same time.
Public:
Please describe your school: My school is very liberal. It’s not like a lot of other public schools because we don’t take regents, its very stressful. It’s a very creative school; people are into music, art and history. It is a medium sized school, 300 kids per grade. Most of the kids live in Park Slope, Brooklyn and the Upper West Side. Most of the people that attend have known each other their whole lives. Kids are really into getting their messages out to others about different cultural and social concerns. Most of the kids at my school party…like everyone actually. There aren’t that many cliques but there are big groups of friends that never leave each other and everyone else just falls wherever.
What does cool mean to you? Cool means being really original and not afraid to look stupid or feel self-conscious. I think a really cool person is someone who follows their own beliefs and doesn’t conform to the beliefs of others.
Where do these original ideas start from though? I guess just like observations from their life and what they have seen in the world. Someone has to be really passionate about what they believe in and that makes a person cool. If someone is just going along with what other people think then that means they are usually naïve. A leader of a movement or a group disserves a lot of respect in my book. It takes a lot for someone to voice his or her opinion since everyone is so critical.
Do you think there is one set idea of cool? Never there are so many different opinions in the world there’s no way that one person can view “cool” like the person sitting next to them. Its like saying a certain song is the best song ever because everyone has different taste in music.
Do you think you are cool? I mean not really there are certain aspects of me that I feel are cool. When I am doing something I really love or I am with people that make me happy I feel cool. But I’m still learning a lot about life and the way I want to live it so I dot really know exactly who I am yet. I try to live my life with no shame because I feel as though people with negative attitudes have negative lives. They aren't living their live to the fullest so instead of being focused on trying to be “cool” it is better to not care and be positive. I wouldn’t really care if I were classified as cool or uncool because I would rather get to know myself better than waste time being so concerned.
When you think of the word cool who comes to your mind first? This girl in my film class is really confident she is really passionate about her work, everything about her screams “I DON’T CARE WHAT PEOPLE THINK!” While at the same time she really cares about the environment and social justice. Being focused on big things in the world like social justice makes you so much cooler focusing on small materialistic things that make you selfish.
Why do you think we care so much about being cool? The media portrays “cool” as being beautiful, having money, drinking and doing drugs. This makes others feel that they have to live up to false expectations. People don’t usually focus on the positive things within them and try to improve all imperfection; they do this by comparing themselves to celebrities. People shouldn’t have to relay on other sources to tell them what is cool.
OMG your private school friend is as retarded as the song "Gucci Bandana"
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